Sad for Sue at Robin’s funeral

A traumatic few weeks for Sue Lindsay. Just off the plane in Canada for a holiday when she was rushed to hospital with suspected meningitis. Back home in Edinburgh, she and husband Andrew had to have one of their beloved retrievers put to sleep.

A few days later they were at Robin Gibb’s funeral at Thame, Oxfordshire. All very harrowing. The Bee Gee connection, Sue explains: “I’ve been a very close friend, for 44 years, of Barry Gibb’s wife Linda (she’s from. Musselburgh). We talk on the phone every weekend. It’s just like we live next door. As for the funeral, it goes without saying it was a sad, sad day. Very emotional.

“Barry and Linda live in Miami. I don’t see us going back until the end of the year. Their daughter Ali will be 21 on December 29. We’ll be at the party and we’ll stay on for New Year.’’

Staying alive. Life isn’t all bad.

He’s in the band

No business like shoe business. Booked to deliver a talk about the poet Edward Lear, Nicholas Parsons took the stage at the Hay bookfest with a scarlet rubber band round his left foot. He made his excuses and stayed.

Just and excuse for a free plug? He had tripped on his way to the gig, he claimed, to an enraptured audience, and the sole had all but come off his shoe.

For the further adventures of the wily Auld Nick every chance you’ll have to wait until the Fringe.

So hang for the next thrilling instalment. The shoes may well be in the other foot.