I first met Nigel through mutual friends in New York in 1983 where we were both living and working. Several of us would meet after work at the bar in Trump Tower, 5th Avenue - Nigel always sitting in the same spot - and many were the lamb barbequeues I was privileged to enjoy prepared by “Chef Nigel”. He came back to the U.K. before me but, soon after my return, traced me to a room in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth where I was being treated for viral meningitis – and great was his indignation that I had not yet contacted him a) to say I was back in the UK or b) that I was ill! And it was Nigel who drove to Devon to collect me and take me to my mother in Berkshire to convalesce. We shared many happy times in Devon with our then respective partners over the next 5 years, until I moved to Hampshire where, although our circles diverged, the friendship remained solid. He was both a private and complex person and, as particularly demonstrated over the past year or so, a man who possessed enormous reserves of strength and dignity; he was my friend “Niggels” – and I shall miss him...