Bob Holman’s unique ability to bring people together went far beyond his local community (Obituary, 16 June). In late 2014, he used his occasional Guardian article to invite the nine of us to write a report on poverty and inequality today, 70 years on from the tensions created between town and country by the attitudes shown towards children and mothers evacuated during the second world war. Mainly strangers, but each of us fuelled by a life-long respect for Bob’s values and work, we rose to his challenge, got together and produced Our Lives: Challenging Attitudes to Poverty in 2015, interviews with 22 people in the different parts of England where we work and live. Our abiding gratitude to Bob is that he prompted us to take action and then launched the report for us, at what proved to be his last public-speaking engagement.
He was too frail to join the report’s relaunch in the House of Commons this year, but his wife Annette sent a message: “Bob wishes the meeting well. He says the report reflects reality, because it is written by people who know the poor and have given them a voice. It is now up to parliamentarians to take effective action to realise its aims.” We hope they do.
Jo Tunnard, Tricia Zipfel, Josephine Feeney, Audrey Flannagan, Loretta Gaffney, Karen Postle, Frances O’Grady, Sally Young, Fran Bennett
• Bob Holman would be the first to admit that he had his flaws. It is inconceivable, however, that he ever “loathed” anyone (Letters, 17 June).
Terry Philpot
Limpsfield Chart, Surrey
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