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Today’s Times carries a full-page obituary for someone who had a real influence on me – though we never met. (Better still, The Scotsman‘s version isn’t hidden behind Rupert Murdoch’s paywall.)

When I wrote to Professor (later Sir) Fred(erick) Holliday while coming to the end of my MPhil course at UCL, back in 1974, he took the trouble to write back, and at length.

I had written to him at Stirling University because I was thinking about plunging not into city planning, which I had been studying, but into either oceanography or fish farming. His advice: Don’t.

I needed a lot more more science to do oceanography, he said, and fish farming was at too early a stage for him to advise that route, either. But he was encouraging on the environmental front – and that was the route I took.

Looking back, though, his biggest impact on me was probably the example he set in replying to a young person writing in out of the blue. A number of other people I wrote to at the same time responded in like manner, though some didn’t.

Ever since, I have replied to everyone who wrote to me – and seen a fair proportion of them, too. It’s amazing how many of our best people have come via that route.

So a belated thank you, Sir Fred.

Last night, across to King’s Cross and the Skip Gardens again for a session with the Puig family members, early on in their quest – co-evolved by Leaders’ Quest and Volans. Then today a series of things, including a stunningly engaging session with the Hackney Sparrows and a closing couple of hours with the family members where I ran through a personal perspective on the evolution of impact economy.

Have always tried to honour those who influenced my thinking over the years. The Oz obscenity trial happened in 1971, when I was doing many weird things in between university stints, and while the Oz trio weren’t direct influences, they represented a counter-culture that was.

They were also prominent in Covent Garden, where we used to go for Middle Earth concerts in the late 1960s – and where I would work for John Roberts and TEST from 1974 to 1978, first in King Street and then Floral Street.

Richard Neville was the only one of the Oz trio I actually met, in Oz, naturally. This was in during one of our Murray Edmonds travelling circus tours. He came up to talk about sustainability after the event – and we got on remarkably well. Liked him a lot. So even sorrier to see news today of his death yesterday.

Well, happily, Tim (a veteran of the Dervish convoy, as a CAM ship pilot) and Tessa (youngest daughter) are safely back from Archangel and the 75th anniversary celebrations for the WWII Arctic Convoys, with a stream of photographs bobbing in their wake. He also features in this newscast, commenting on what the visit to Russia means in terms of wider geopolitics. Proud of them both – and of them all.

Nice piece in today’s Times on the Arctic convoy veterans’ Archangel visit this week, quoting Tim. And here’s a picture of him in his element with three young Russian, today I think. He must be twice their combined ages. No doubt remembers their grandmothers.