Paul MCGREGOR Obituary

I woke to this terrible news this morning when I got a notice on my FB page from his brother Paul, I think, with that wonderful quote from Stevenson. SO unexpected.

I knew that he often visited Thailand-he was in love with that country, and often went there in the Spring. We had planned to see each other in the next few months because I missed him the last time I was in England.

Tony and I go way back to 1982 when I shared a seat with him on a bus to Dover. I was young (as was he) and that was my first time overseas. I was in jeans; he in a pin-striped suit. But we had a non-stop conversation all of the way from London to Dover (the trains were on strike and that is why we were in the bus). At the end of the trip, we were finishing each other's sentences, it was uncanny.

So I have been corresponding with him every since; he visited my husband and our family in California over 15 years ago when he was travelling through Los Angeles, and I talked with him many times- most recently after this recent election in the UK. Tony was determined to live until the next one so he could help unseat Cameron. Such a wonderful and feisty spirit...he had so much to say and was so incredibly wise.

I have saved all of his emails to me in file because they were laced with his philosophy of life and were very important to me. I even had my artist father pen a quote of Tony's in calligraphy - one copy to me and one to Tony- because it was so poignant and so Tony. "You can't find what you're looking for by avoiding what you're looking at." February 18, 1982.

Tony turned me onto The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe and my daughter and husband onto Terry Pratchet. He had so much to offer and so many more years of wisdom left.

I will miss him terribly, but his wonderful spirit will always be in my heart.