When I was blogging at Albion Awakening with William Wildblood and John Fitzgerald; we once decided to give Geoffrey Ashe our virtual award of 'Greatest Living Englishman'.
As he was very old, I would do a search every few weeks to check he was still alive - and today I found that he was not; but had died on 30th January, aged 98.
This important event does not seem to have been noticed by the mass media - but a young friend wrote this delightful tribute.
Geoffrey Ashe was generally regarded as the greatest living expert on King Arthur - perhaps the greatest ever. Growing-up in Somerset I was aware of him from my teens, through his work with the archaeologists at the South Cadbury 'hill fort' a few miles away which was suggested as the real-life 'Camelot'. I once visited and walked the steep earth ramparts with my father.
I have half a bookshelf of Ashe's work, and often consult it. More to the point; several are personal classics that contributed to my fundamental vision of life - Camelot and the Vision of Albion and Mythology of the British Isles are particular favourites.
The heart of Geoffrey Ashe's writing was the theme of mythology and Albion - the legendary Britain, the country of our hearts. What made Ashe special was the way he combined wide-ranging scholarship with imagination: his learning was in service to a deep and powerful engagement with the fundamentals of life.
