Friday 25 May 2012

Tony 1931-2012

This is the blog of Tony.  Had blogging been invented twenty years earlier it is likely this would have had a deleterious effect on his career progress.  As it was, it had a beneficial effect on his retirement.  Tony passed away at home on 25th May, 2012.  Details of his funeral and where donations can be made can be found at:

http://arthurctowner.tributes.to/anthony-alfred-tony-brooks/

We have no plans ever to remove this blog.  Tony left a small number of unpublished posts.  We may publish these in future if it seems right.

9 comments:

emfink said...

OMF has been such a wonderful source of entertainment and enlightenment over the years. I shall miss Tony's writing and wit. Condolences and best wishes to his family.

dandd said...

I'm a fairly new reader of OMF, but Tony's writing made me feel like I had met a new friend. I'm glad the blog will remain up. Condolences to his family.

Froog said...

I've been enjoying Tony's blog here for some years now, and was privileged to have engaged in some personal correspondence with him too.

I'm glad that the blog will remain online. It is a fine tribute to a remarkable man, and I'm sure it will in future bring pleasure to countless new readers who were not lucky enough to discover it while its author was still with us.

All of us who were thus fortunate, whether casual or regular readers here, are very grateful to Tony for sharing so much wit and whimsy and beautiful writing with us. I shall miss him very much. It is surely a sign of a life well lived to have inspired so much love and admiration in people he never met.

My sympathies to his friends and family.

Elizabeth said...

I am so very sorry to read this news. Stumbling by accident on Tony's blog some years ago was one of the happiest chances of my older age. He made me think and laugh; he stimulated and entertained me and I shall miss his posts very much. Thank you for keeping his blog. My deep sympathy to Tony's family and friends.

The Editor said...

Tony was a gentleman blogger. May his soul rest in peace.

Minerva said...

I am so very sorry on two points. Firstly that I never had the chance to tell Tony how much his writing meant to me over the years before he died...
Secondly, how much his own words of encouragement gave to me as I went through cancer so young. I loved his humour, sarcastic and biting and dry and miss him terribly. I know that even now he will be somewhere laughing at the vagueries of life (I bet he had fun at the cabinet reshuffle!) and I will miss him dreadfully. Even as the spell check highlights the word vagueries, I would have loved to share that with him!

Thank you for keeping his blog here, and a big hug to you all.
Time to publish it perhaps?

Best wishes to you all,

Minerva

Tony said...

Dear Min (as I think Tony called you),

Thank you for your lovely message which was a great pleasure to receive and very touching. We recall that Tony spoke very fondly of you and we think he did know that you appreciated his company and that he meant something to you, so in turn you did to him. He certainly enjoyed laughing at the vagaries – that’s vagaries, the ‘u’ is silent – of your spelling, as at all of ours. The old rascal.

We hope you are keeping well and finding pleasure in other dodgy blogs now that Tony is not publishing. If you’d care to let us know anything in a private comment we won’t publish it.

Consider yourself also hugged.

Family of Tony

Minerva said...

Dear Family of Tony,
Thank you so much for your message and for the correction of vagaries as well. That made me smile so much as Tony would have done exactly the same!
I'm so glad you are publishing some of his unpublished posts; he is, I am sure, smiling cynically somewhere.. I think of him often and miss him much, much more than I should.

I think you were all so lucky to have him for so long, and thank you for opening up to me in the same way he did. He adored you all, and it's obvious why.

Best wishes,

Marina (Minerva)

Davoh said...

Thank you ... for continuing the memory of his legacy,