So this is a platonic love song to my best friend Joe's Mum, June.

When we were teenagers, I practically lived round Joe's house, staying round there more often than not. Consequently, I quickly became friendly with, and eventually very close to, Joe’s Mum, June. We often used to share a cup of tea and a cigarette together.

She was an absolutely wonderful lady; full of joie-de-vivre and an unbounding capacity for love. She had a fondness for Frank Sinatra. Like everyone else, she also had her issues, suffering from occasional bouts of melancholia, but I remember her with the greatest affection.

Anyway, over the years I practically became “adopted” by June. One day (it wasn’t actually on my birthday, I don’t think, although my birthday is in June) she told me very generously that she thought of me a “a little bit (her) son” which touched me enormously. I guess when you are in late teenage (I might have been 19 then) you are looking for acceptance, and perhaps I was looking for it more than most. Anyway, it meant a lot to me.

This is my tribute to the lovely June Gresle Farthing (nee Wyles).