For Greg
Greg Rogers was my friend. He was the sort of friend who laughed, grizzled, shared secrets and gossip and, most of all, was there. We didn’t get together very often but it didn’t seem to matter. He was always ready to pick up where we left off … and I will miss him. He was the face I’d look for at gatherings – if Greg was there, I’d know it was going to be fun. I don’t think I was the only one… so often I’d hear ‘Greg will be there’ …
And now he’s not going to be there again.
I wanted to write so much in this space but, for the first time in a long time, it is really difficult to find exactly what I want to say. That I am grateful to having known him…that I am grateful for his faith in me… that I am grateful for the wonderful work he did …. that I am grateful for his willingness to support my efforts ….
Mostly I think I want to make sure that, for a short time, the world is a little sadder for having lost such a wonderful storyteller, artist and illustrator. In every library – in schools and towns and cities all over the world, in galleries and bookshops there has always been a Greg Rogers book. And there was always the promise of another … an expectation that something this good could never dry up.
I guess I just want you to think about that. They’re quiet achievers, artists like Greg, and they can slip away from us unnoticed until one day, when you want another Rogers book to read, you discover there is no more… not another Midsummer Night, or Bears and Boys and Bards. It was one of my favourites – The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard – and I used it in a publicity photo. Someone asked me why I hadn’t used one of my own books – I think I liked Greg’s book better than mine. I know I love that bear to bits!
So, to celebrate Greg’s life and to make sure you spent a moment, like I am, thinking especially about him, how about finding his books in your library… how about making a display that says ‘Greg was here.’
Yep… Greg was here and last week he slipped away.
I wish he could have stayed longer.