Goodbye, Harry

Harry Harrison's official webpage says that he's gone.

If you don't know the name, I'm sorry for you. You've missed an awful lot of fun.

If you recognise the name - and most of you reading this will - you'll understand why I'm feeling a little downbeat.

I'll say only this: I really don't know what kind of person I'd have been if I hadn't discovered a trove of Stainless Steel Rat books when I was still back in primary school. I can't tell you  how many endless hours of toxic bullshit I wallpapered away with the adventures of Jim diGriz and the many others that Harry Harrison created.

No, I'm not arguing that he wrote immortal literature. But he had a hell of a sense of fun, and his priorities were in the right place, and his books made a thousand worlds of difference to me at a time when I desperately needed that escape.

I'm sorry I never got to say 'thanks' in person.