this too
Thursday, April 14, 2005
  Julia



Someone on my blogroll has died. Is there a protocol for this? Even if there was, Julia Darling was a one-off, I think. If I hadn't known her story, that the fullest flowering of her wonderful talent as a writer came in the years after she was diagnosed with cancer, I'd still have savoured her warm, wild, wacky, moving poetry and plays and novels and songs. As it happens I came to know more of her work through reading her blog and hearing her on the radio, talking with astonishing directness and humour about living with illness for which there was no more treatment. I only knew her through her words, but they were so alive. It's very hard to believe she's gone. Her own words, her poems on her website and in her blog today say it best.

Later: here is a piece about Julia, with links to an article she wrote, her recent online poetry workshop, and reviews of one of her novels, from today's online Guardian.

And here you can listen to a tribute from BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, and to a recent interview with Julia.
 
Comments:
(o)
 
Even odder ... I only discovered Julia yesterday lunchtime after looking at your blogroll ... and now she's bloody gone!!
 
What Dale said...
 
Wow. Just read the last couple of her posts. The final poem was so beautiful. Amazing she had such strength and spirit to continue to write.
 
Wow. I echo what others have said and thank you for introducing me to her. I am sad she is gone but glad her beauty and writing is still here with us.
 
There's an excellent obituary in today's (17th) Guardian.
 
...to which you have already provided a link. Whoops...
 
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