Robert Maycock

Thanks to Keith Potter's obituary (9 February), I learned a great deal about Robert Maycock, even though we had first met in the 1990s and we were in regular contact, writes Ken Hunt. One important element of Robert's writings was not touched upon; that was his inordinate love, passion and abiding curiosity about the music of South Asia. He wrote beautifully, engagedly and insightfully about it in many places – periodicals and CD booklet notes included. A week to the day before his death he and I were corresponding about something to do with Hindustani music. Unusually, I never heard back about the outcome. Now I know why.

Robert was also a valued and open-handed contributor to the NUJ-hosted NBT forum for freelance writers and photojournalists specialising in music of whatever stripe. He sent postings whingeing about internet breakdowns in India, delighted in the headiness of music journalism, and added advice about how generations of freelances could avoid the mistakes that ours had made.