The last time I saw him was the 14th September last year. He visited Worcester to chat about the ecommerce shop project. That evening Georgina, Ben and I went for a meal with him. He was much thinner than I remember and a little quieter, but we had good conversation with Ben also being included. It was good to see him, though the effects of his illness was obvious.

He wasn’t drinking that evening. We used to enjoy a drink together; we’d have wine and then move onto whisky. I found him an easy conversationalist and we’d spend the night talking long after Georgina and Sylvia had gone to bed. Of course, I was the only one who was up at 7 the following morning :)

I had a very typical male friendship with him. We didn’t talk about our emotions or anything. In fact it was only this month that we talked about his fear of dying alone in hospital and I got some glimpses into how his illness from last year had really knocked his enthusiam for life. I think that those conversations really brought home how serious it was. Strange.

I’m going to miss his humour and our late night conversations over whisky the most I think.

Looking at my photos over the years. We had so many good times. He’s an old enough friend that I don’t have the early photos here as it predates when I had a digital camera.

Simon wrote Cliff’s obituary for The Register.