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Mary Irvine: My Friend Robin Lloyd Jones

Robin Lloyd-Jones would have been 90 years old on 5 October, 2024,  but it was not to be. I was privileged to be asked to write an obituary but felt a formal obituary was too cold and impersonal. After several attempts the following emerged and was published in the Helensburgh Advertiser.

My Friend, Robin

I met Robin at the Helensburgh Writer’s Workshop in 2011.  Someone said he had written a book which had been received with much acclaim, including winning BBC Best First Novel Competition. Another said, ’It’s a bit mucky!’ 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 16^th 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 didn’t overdo it. It didn’t become tedious; 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. Many publishers like book one, book two, book three….

I discovered that Robin did have a connection with India.  Indeed had spent much of his childhood there at the time of the Raj. This time is reflected in Where the Forest and the Garden Meet  which is mostly biographical.

Following a not happy time at boarding school Robin went to Cambridge, leaving with an MA in Social Anthropology.

After a successful career in various areas of education Robin branched out to become a full time writer. 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 gift, 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. Another piece told of kayaking in a force 9 gale, highly dangerous with the possibility the whole group could have been drowned; yet at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. Robin commented, almost nonchalantly: “I suppose we shouldn’t have done it”.

With seventeen published books from which to choose there is one more 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 suggestions “ 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. Perhaps they went mountaineering, sea kayaking, shared photography, played chess with him …

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 provided 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’ Even his cat became involved!

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”. These tales of walks with Archie and their conversations not only amuse but reveal a more personal, gentler, reflective and philosophical – and the way Archie and Robin played with English – quite brilliant,

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 …

Robin Lloyd-Jones, born 5^th October 1934, died 5^th September 2024

The ‘Send-off’

Robin’s ‘Send-Off” took place at the Rosslea Hall Hotel on, September 19^th , attended by people who knew Robin from all the different interests of his life. It was quite a gathering …

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