Phyllis Dimond

Eve Amos writes: Oh happy memories (obituary, Phyllis Dimond, Nov 1). In the 1930s my grandparents lived in a mews flat in Kinnerton Yard and as a very small girl I was a frequent visitor. I remember shopping with my grandmother in Southey’s grocery store. As we climbed the steps and pushed the door open a lovely smell of milk and cheese wafted over us as a bell summoned the shopkeeper. Unhurried conversation would follow while purchases were made and family members discussed.

Occasionally my father and grandfather would be given dispensation to visit the public house in Kinnerton Street for a hurried pint, but Grandma always made sure that their time was limited by including my brother and me in the deal. We had to wait outside the frosted-glass windows with our bag of Smiths crisps with the blue waxy paper square of salt.

In the 1940s a bomb demolished my grandparents’ home and they became housekeepers to a family who had a London house in Cadogan Square. Thereafter we shopped in Harrods food hall, another magical place to a child’s eyes.

Thank you to Phyllis Dimond for her lovely painting evoking my happy childhood days.

The Very Rev John Hughes

John Fulbeck writes: I remember John Hughes (obituary, Oct 30) with great affection. During his time as succentor at Chelmsford Cathedral, I was closely involved with him in the presentation of the exhibitions and the accompanying booklets on The Bible and Music in Essex.

Working with John was a delight; his deep chuckle still resonates in my memory. He was always teased for never having any money in his pocket which he maintained was an economical way of living. He was an innately kind and warm person.

Professor Derek Moore

David Jeffreys, QC, writes: Derek Moore (obituary, Oct 28), as well as being a distinguished mathematician (and Fellow of the Royal Society), was a highly accomplished jazz musician. He was a member, on clarinet, of a succession of Cambridge University jazz bands in the 1950s, the most notable of which was probably the quintet in which his front-line partner, on soprano saxophone, was the brilliant Dick Heckstall-Smith. This band won the British Universities’ jazz contest in 1956 and Heckstall-Smith (obituary, Dec 21, 2004) went on to a career as a professional jazz musician. Derek later took up the tenor saxophone, his playing being somewhat reminiscent of the late Wardell Gray, one of his favourite musicians. Derek’s playing was in contrast to his shy and retiring nature.