John Barton (Obituary, 19 January) took me under his wing after my brain haemorrhage, taking me along to his masterclasses for Bada at Balliol and Magdalen. I had the privilege of learning sonnets under John’s guidance to demonstrate to the students as either a shining example or a terrible warning. I watched him speak long passages – mostly from memory from the Morte D’Arthur. He became Thomas Mallory. I went to visit him last Thursday with a new cardigan and his favourite mango and pineapple fruit. His room was empty and I was pleased to think he had joined the others in the television room. John would have smiled wryly at the irony of my asking the first orderly, who spoke little English, where he was. The reply was: “She died at 4.30 this morning.” Like many, I loved him deeply and visited him often in his later years. Like many, I have lost the greatest mentor any Shakespearean actor will ever have. Most of all, I have lost a dear and cherished man whom I counted as a friend. “There’s a great spirit gone.”
Jane Lapotaire
London
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