I haven’t posted anything for a few months. I just couldn’t find the words to say.

After a long illness, my wife and partner for well over thirty years, died a few months ago. Even though we knew what was coming, it was still a shock and one that I don’t think I’ll ever get over.

My favourite times during our life together were when we settled down for the evening and talked over a glass of something. We would talk for hours about this and that and I never got bored with anything she had to say. Even after thirty years she could still surprise me. Now it is just silence. The utter finality of death is the hardest thing to take.

Kathleen encouraged me to write and was the first and best reader of all my books. She was never afraid to criticise my work and my books ended up being all the better for it. Mac Maguire is as much hers as mine. She was a selfless, caring person and, amazingly, stayed positive throughout the whole of her journey with cancer. This made it easier for her doctors, nurses and carers and for me too.

I now feel unmoored and desperate at times but I know that my life was all the better for having known her.

God bless you, Kathleen…

Kathleen Bridget McGuire

November 1960 to November 2023