Gwen had died earlier that day.

Not spooky, but poignant.

Well, if you don’t know her work, check it out. (I’ve given ‘The Babylonians’ to so many people as a present that one will probably be working its way to you somehow.)

And if you never knew Gwen, but know someone else brilliant & sharp & warm?

Don’t forget to keep in touch.

#obituary #rip #ancienthistory #babylonian #gwendolynleick #weightlifting #fortean #hauntedlandscape #irvingfinkel

I was at Fortean London’s brilliant #hauntedlandscape event, and had just heard Dr Irving Finkel, @britishmuseum Mesopotamiologist, speak on the earliest documentary references to ghosts, in Sumerian tablets. We chatted briefly, and I mentioned my acquaintance with Gwen.

“I haven’t seen her for ages,” said Dr Finkel. “How is she?”

She’s not been well, but she’s still brilliant, I said.

He looked up and said, “People just seem to disappear, don’t they?”

And then I got home… and heard.