‘Gloom is good’: after my wife died I found solace in poetry and music

You can’t fight death, sickness, ageing and life’s various indignities, but you can play very loud rock’n’rollEvery morning my older daughter calls from London. “What you doing today?” Erm… she’s most solicitous. She’s really checking in to check that I’m not checking out – that I haven’t woken up dead or had a stroke or a dizzy spell or plunged down some stairs or otherwise conked out. That I’m still above ground and