Patrick Moore RIP

Patrick Moore died today, aged 89, at his home in Selsey, a sleepy little seaside village a few miles from my home town of Chichester. Apart from being Britain's best known amateur astronomer and presenter of the world's longest-running-with-the-same-original-presenter (55 years) TV series, The Sky at Night, he was also a keen cricketer, writer, chess player and composer. I remember him performing a xylophone version of Anarchy in the UK at a Royal Variety Performance. I also remember him giving a talk at our school and occasionally you'd see him shopping in Chichester. But the nearest I got to him was sharing a hospital waiting room, me clutching a fractured finger, he nursing some undefined ailment. He was huge.