Bob Doe and Charlie Gillett

Two among a series of obituaries that resonated powerfully this month were those for Wing Commander Bob Doe, who Tim flew with in, I think, India and Burma during WWII, and Charlie Gillett, one of the key figures in the world music movement from the late 1980s. I wrote many of the books of that period late into the night listening to Gillett on Capital Radio, in the days when you listened to the radio on the radio. In my mind he’s up there alongside John Peel in terms of DJs – and alongside Chris Blackwell and Ry Cooder in terms of being an ambassador for world music.