Tribute paid to Helensburgh author Robin Lloyd-Jones

Robin Lloyd-Jones was born in October 4,1934 and grew up in India before being educated at a boarding school in Devon and Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in social anthropology in 1960.

He then moved to Scotland to work as an education adviser for the Strathclyde Regional Council.

He soon became part of the vibrant Scottish writing scene, serving as president of the Scottish Association of Writers from 1993 until 1996 and then president of the Scottish Branch of PEN International until 2000, and chairing the Writers in Prison Committee which campaigns on behalf of persecuted writers.

The Helensburgh author was very active in the Scottish writing scene (Image: Newsquest)

Mary Irvine, a close friend of the family, paid tribute to the much-loved author following his death on September 5.

She said: "I met Robin at the Helensburgh Writer’s workshop in 2011. Someone said he had written a book that had received much acclaim, including winning BBC Best First Novel competition.

"I was a wee bit in awe of this quietly spoken, unassuming gentleman - this was a real writer as opposed to me.

"I did read Lord of the Dance, set in 16th century India. It was good, more than good and written in perfect, clear English. The descriptions were so vivid. You could almost smell the earth. It wasn’t Rudyard Kipling’s colourful, exciting India, this was stinky, smelly India. It appealed to all the senses.

"And the detail Robin put into it – it was tortured detail; it was almost a flavour; it created the era and time without being boring. He brought the characters to life whether they were real or fictional.

"I was hooked and, as with many people I waited for the second instalment. Over the years, I realised that wasn’t Robin."

Following his successful career in education, he took early retirement in 1989 to focus on his writing full-time and enjoy his passions for mountaineering and sea kayaking.

Robin has a passion for mountaineering and pictured in Caithness (Image: Newsquest)

"Gift for writing will live on"

Mary added: "He always acknowledged the debt he owed to his wife who supported him, not only in his writing, but throughout his life.

"Whether fiction or non-fiction Robin has the ability to create an authentic sense of time and space. He had this ability, in his writing, to make you feel you are there with him.

"Once, when reading from Argonauts of the Western Isles, to an audience in Helensburgh library, he read a piece about kayaking into a sea cave, describing how you had to time your entrance with the tides, and on exiting the cave you had to lean forward and put your head on the front of your kayak.

"I could see some people in the audience leaning their heads forward. They were with him.

"With seventeen published books I wish to reference - The Sunlit Summit - a biography of the Scottish mountaineer and mystic W.H.Murray, which won the Saltire prize for best researched book of the year.

"Before writing a review of the book I mentioned to Robin that the spirituality of Murray came across very strongly.

"This led to a conversation in which Robin’s own spirituality became transparent. I, and many other fledgling writers, have learned much from Robin’s observations.

"He never said 'That’s wrong, that’s rubbish', but would offer a suggestion of 'trying something a little different', or 'maybe not the right word'.

"Robin’s gift of writing will live on for many. His being will live on in the memories of those who did know him, if only for a little while."

The 89-year-old published 17 books and chaired Scottish PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee for the same number of years (Image: Newsquest)

She added: "In the autumn of his years he realised he could no longer do what he used to do. But he also realised that there was an awful lot around him that maybe he had missed before.

"Enjoying challenges throughout his life he never gave up. I asked him once about mountaineering, and he said ‘No, I walk the gentler slopes now’. And he wasn’t only talking about a mountain, it was much deeper.

"His comment that ‘Near is the New Far’ led to me becoming more aware. I had frequently passed a felled tree in Balloch Country Park.

"Now I stand to watch the evolution as it provides a platform for a new, a different life. Now one can hardly recognise the ‘log’. Robin championed that age does not stunt creativity, setting up the website ‘Autumn Voices’.

"I referred above to Robin as a gentle man and many saw him as such, but beneath that exterior was possession of an inner physical, mental and moral strength witnessed by his work on behalf of Scottish Pen.

"But there was also a humorous, often subtle, side to Robin, perhaps most revealed in his, as yet, unpublished 'Crumbly Chronicles'.

"I see him now, with his dear friend, Archie, wandering along country paths, maybe the slopes of mountains he once climbed. I hear their repartee as they fade into the distance." 

The family will have a 'send off' on Thursday, September 19 from 10.30am until 12.30pm at Rosslea Hall Hotel. The committal will be family only.