E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Yesterday most of the world grieved on learning about the death of David Bowie - the extraordinary level of mourning marking a sense a figure as pivotal as Picasso had left the mortal planet. Cue BBC Radio 4, and Front Row, on just after The Archers in the evening, which decided, rightly, to focus its programming on Bowie. Among the guests invited to discuss his life and work was Lavinia Greenlaw , a well-known and talented Faber poet, novelist, and professor of creative writing. From the start, it was an odd affair - no one really discussed Bowie's work in film, for instance - and it felt a bit rushed, which, given the surprise announcement of his death, makes sense. In retrospect, asking Greenlaw to speak about Bowie from a poet's perspective seems an error, but she was introduced as a "long-time fan" of his music. At the very start of the Greenlaw segment, something dreadful happened - something so English in the worst sense of the word, I shudder at it. ...

Sad, devastating news - the undisputed world genius of popular independent music of the past 45 years, the chameleon and game-changer David Bowie , has died suddenly, of cancer, after releasing his 25th studio LP, Black Star , on Friday, on his 69th birthday. The Rev. Richard Cole , has called him the greatest Englishman of his time, and he was, without a doubt, the most influential rock/pop musician alive since the death in 1980 of John Lennon . RIP, you man of many parts.