John Peel

John Peel's generosity and interest were not limited to music, writes Tom Raworth [further to the obituary by Spencer Leigh and D. J. Taylor, 27 October]. During the late 1960s his was the only programme, in an otherwise contemptuous BBC, on which younger poets outside the literary clique were invited to read their work.

The poet Ian Patterson told me of a friend who had corrected a Peel error on some obscure group. Some nights later, a knock on his door. It was John: "I was just passing this way and thought you might like a chat."