Alistair Cooke died yesterday. I've listened to his erudite, spoken essays on the BBC many times over the years. Whilst not, necessarily, always agreeing with him, his usage and command of the English language has, in my opinion, few equals. Being as History, to a great extent, tends to be a rehash of newspaper articles, his essays are both a delight to read and a record of many of the major events of the last century. A selection can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/page/0,14439,1181132,00.html

A Gentleman to the end of his life.

Yep, 'Letter From America' on Radio 4 has been the official 'sound of Sunday morning' for me ever since I can remember - since the very early seventies up until just a few weeks ago.

Definitely a sad loss.