Before his sadly premature death, my husband, Brian Patten (obituary, 2 October), left a beautiful memoir, In the Garden After Midnight, within a breath of completion. Also in draft form is The Cinder Thrush, his final (and, in my view, best) poetry collection.
Linda Cookson
I met Brian in a shop in Shepherd’s Bush, and we went on talking for nearly 40 years. He was perhaps the one true, natural poet I’ve known. Whatever way the world came at him, from when he was 15 until his death, he could find an image, or a series of images, that embodied the impact, and there are more poems to come.
It may be assumed that since his last collection of adult poems, Armada, was published 29 years ago, the gift had deserted him. But he went on writing, about nature and the departed and love. He used to read the poems to me over the phone. I dearly wish I could talk with him again.
Timothy O’Grady
