Finished off Danny Baker's second volume, "Going Off Alarming" today, and another enjoyable read it was too.
In one of the chapters towards the end, he talked about his friendship with Paul Gascoigne, and inevitably shared some comical stories of some of the high jinks they'd got up to back in the nineties. But, it was the last couple of paragraphs in the chapter that particularly struck me:
"More than anything in the world, I would wish Paul to get well and realise, once and for all, how widely loved, respected and important he is. Though these books may include many notable people who have punctuated our pop culture over the last forty years, nobody comes close to making the impression on me that Paul Gascoigne did.
I have never met anyone like him and certainly never expect to do so again."
Beautifully put.
(After all, as anyone who knew me back in 1990 will no doubt remember, it was Paul Gascoigne who reminded us that "There will always be an England".)