There are some jobs you just don’t want to be given because you don’t want them to be necessary, ever… Writing Rob Holdstock's obituary for the Guardian was one of these. In the 24 hours after he died hundreds, if not thousands, of people tweeted and blogged and facebooked about the man, others simply put up stark little paragraphs in memorial, because anything else was too painful.
The sad thing, and a very Rob thing, is that he would have been shocked and slightly embarrassed to discover just how highly the rest of us held him in respect. He was truly modest and truly talented, that rarest of combinations. You can find the obituary here