Cy Grant

I am so terribly sorry to hear that Cy Grant has died, age 90, on 13th February. I remember him so well from when I was a child, and he sang his Topical Calypsos on the Tonight programme on TV.  Sad in a way that this is how I remember him best from all those years ago, as he had a splendidly varied and successful life in many ways, and soon left the Tonight team as he feared being typecast as the black calypso singer.
A full obituary can be seen at Times Online. He was barrister, airline pilot, actor, activist, poet, author and more. In 2007 he wrote Blackness and the Dreaming Soul, "a meditation on his Caribbean roots and quest for identity during his time in Britain."
I am particularly sad because he was very supportive of my own writing ideas and we had exchanged emails over the last year or so in this connection. I had promised to send him a copy of my book when published and now that cannot be.
Rest in peace, Cy. I feel privileged to have come to know you. You said you had found a soul mate. I found one too!
love Eleanor