Very sad loss as Alan was such a larger than life character you couldn’t help but get drawn into conversations with him as he held forth in his corner of the bar, A mate owns the Craigdarroch pub/hotel in Moniaive and sold Alan & Sue a house 10 yards from the pub’s front door (Alan/sue owned a massive sprawling arts & craft house just outside the village but Alans health was deteriorating a number of years ago so they had to move into the village), as I worked in the pub i had the privilege of spending a fair amount of time in their company over the years, he was a huge character in real life and held forth with his fierce intellect on what he saw as societies ills, utterly captivating to get into discussions that often lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. Still can’t really process the news and but I guess it will come to a head over the weekend as I see everyone, so sad for Sue as the pair of them were inseperable but there’s no doubt the village will rally around and the turn out for his funeral and wake will be rather messy, just as Alan wanted it.
