The Aardvark Blog

Saddest News Imaginable
8/04/2014

Last Friday I took a call in the bookshop that was to change my life for ever. It was 5.25pm and the shop was shut and I nearly didn't pick up the phone, but old habits die hard and so I answered. The call was from a friend and co-worker who was at the station waiting for my old friend and co-founder of Aardvark Books Edward Tobin to pick her up.

Edward had been staying in her house to look after her dog, whilst she went to visit her elderly mother. I went round to the house and saw the car outside, and immediately assumed that Edward had fallen asleep and failed to get up in time to leave for the train. When I got in to the living room however I found that he had died - a glass of beer by his side and the newspaper on his knee. Death had come quickly to him and in all probability he had known nothing about it. That is a small ray of comfort, in an otherwise bleak landscape.

Edward had not been ill and he had so many plans for the future. Working with him over the last ten years at Aardvark has been a true pleasure, and perhaps the happiest years of my working life. His spirit and good humour are irreplacable, but we all know that in the months and years to come, in good times and bad, we will have the reservoir of our memories of him to help us through. So many tributes have come in - by phone, letter and email - and they have all struck a chord. One person said to me that they thought that it would have been very difficult for anybody meeting Edward not to have liked him. He has been a close friend and colleague for over 28 years and we have worked together in different ways across 5 different companies since we first met at what was then William Collins in the 1980's. It is hard if not impossible to imagine life without him.