Michael was a significant presence in the lives of all whom he touched, including mine way back in the days when I first met him when he was at Hagley Hall with Colin Sims, was that 1980? So many recollections. He was always a "force of nature", whether he was organising the judiciary to a "private" dinner party in a domestic cellar in Edgbaston (thereby circumventing the liquor licensing restrictions) or walking Joyce Fisher to Glyndebourne to meet Joan Sutherland or any other number of stars that he knew personally… Some of whom even stayed with him at his time in Gillott Road. From Bryce Somerville