James Brown, the publisher and long-term partner of the historian David Starkey, has died at the age of 43.
The book designer died on 28 October at the couple’s 18th-century manor house in Kent, according to a notice in the Times. The funeral will be held in Rochester Cathedral on 23 November.
Starkey, 70, Brown’s partner for 21 years, has cancelled a number of engagements. The two met at the Beaver’s Retreat bar at the London School of Economics. He told the Guardian in 2012 that he knew the relationship would be different straight away.
Asked about the secret of their relationship, Starkey said: “There has to be a high level of mutual tolerance and a thorough enjoyment of each other’s company. It’s got to combine love and friendship, but also, you can’t be captious.
“The reason so many relationships run aground is that we’re a spoilt generation used to having everything exactly as we want it. But I’m afraid that if there are two of you together, there will be lots of occasions where neither party has exactly what they want.”
Starkey said they had “a sort of honeymoon in Bologna, and we made a series of promises to each other … But we weren’t too ambitious and I think we’ve both stuck to them.”
