Michael Bywater

I kept Michael’s article about the death of his mother for ten years - in a box that I’ve taken around the country with me - like some talisman of good writing. I’m attempting to throw away all this paper - but not before I record it here. Mr Bywater still works for the Independent, as far as I know. If you’re reading this MIchael, get in touch - I’d like to interview you.

An old and common story
Independent, The (London), Jan 31, 1999 by Michael Bywater

“THEY SAY the dreams will start in a week or two. We’ll be chatting on the telephone, she’ll drop in for a cup of tea, I’ll bump into her in the street. This is how it goes, they tell me, and one day she’ll go too far - criticise my waistline, or start making plans to go to Vienna (she always wanted to go to Vienna but never made it) - and I will have to break the news. “Look,” I shall have to say, “you can’t keep just dropping by like this. You’re dead.”

“And so she is. Audrey Jean Bywater, nee Price, born Newport, Monmouthshire, 1st October 1927; died 5.30am, Saturday 16th January 1999…”

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990131/ai_n9656597

Also:

Last laugh of Alan Coren, comedy king of Cricklewood

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2701378.ece