I am so sad that on 8th January my wonderful, irreplaceable friend and brilliant writer Cordelia Feldman died. I will never have another friend like her, and no one who ever met Cordelia will forget her.
We had the friendship equivalent of love at first sight when we were only 19 and I am blessed to have had her as my friend for all of these years.
In the poem 'The Summer Day', Mary Oliver asks - 'what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?' Cordelia did more with her wild and precious life than most of us ever will. She wrote two wonderful books, she appeared on two BBC TV documentaries and Woman's Hour, she achieved academically, she read everything, she made friends everywhere (with humans and animals), she learned to read tarot and she inspired countless others with her brave writing about her cancer and bi-polar disorder - writing an update to her blog every single day no matter what.
I am so proud to have been her friend. I will never, ever stop missing her for her fierce intelligence and wit, her warmth and her kindness. Cordelia made every single thing we did together feel like an adventure, even when all we did was sit in her flat and talk. She was with me as I walked through life and always will be.
All of my love and thoughts are with her family, who she loved endlessly.