The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people’s hearts
It was felled maliciously in the small hours of September 28th, aged around 300
Gardeners often think unfondly of sycamores. These are big, resilient, untidy trees, relatively recent arrivals, and of careless habits. Their winged seeds, and the tough little seedlings that sprout from them, spread everywhere they can. One such seedling was determined enough to drive its taproot through thin marshy topsoil into the dark, crystalline dolerite of Whin Sill, the cliff-like ridge in Northumberland which carries Hadrian’s Wall. And there, over two or three centuries, it grew.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Beauty been ”
From the October 7th 2023 edition
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Frank Auerbach aimed only at one memorable image
Britain’s most obsessive figurative painter died on November 11th, aged 93
Baltazar Ushca climbed Chimborazo twice a week
The last Ecuadorean ice-harvester died on October 11th, aged 80
Quincy Jones ruled popular music for half a century
The producer, arranger and film-score writer died on November 3rd, aged 91
Lily Ebert lived to share her story of Auschwitz
The Holocaust survivor and memoirist died on October 9th, aged 100
Fethullah Gulen tried to transform Turkey in the subtlest ways
The scholar, teacher and activist died on Ocrober 20th, aged 83
Sammy Basso led research into his own rare disease
The Italian biologist and longest-lived progeria patient died on October 5th, aged 28