RIP

Two people who have had a big impact on my life died recently and both featured on BBC Radio 4's Last Word.

The broadcaster Christopher Martin-Jenkins was only 67 and had worked for the BBC for 43 years! CMJ, as he was known, was a Cricket Commentator and writer and was a fixture on Test Match Special. I have spent many a happy hour over the years listening to CMJ and it was a real shock to realise that I will no longer hear his voice.

I was aware that CMJ had died but I also learned that the broadcaster Charles Chilton had died aged 95.

I know little of Chilton's career when I was about 15 I was lent a book by a classmate and enjoyed it, as time went on I couldn't remember the title or the author, just that it was set on Mars and had pyramids and there was a sequel.

So let's scroll forward to 1991, a colleague lent me a radio series on tape, that series was called Journey into Space  - the Red Planet. I was playing it when driving  to and from work and suddenly I realised THIS WAS IT! This was that book!

There are 3 parts to Journey into Space - Operation Luna, The Red Planet and The World in Peril. I knew that all 3 are available on CD (I have all 3 on tape!!!) but I was surprised to find that the books were VERY recently reissued. They are horribly dated but great fun. Tempted so Tempted.

My thanks to CMJ and Charles Chilton for many happy memories.