Very sad to hear the news of Ian Jack’s death, he commissioned and edited The Bus We Loved so I owe him a great deal. My thoughts are with his family, friends and former colleagues, he was a great writer and real editor – he went through the first draft of Bus like a locust, improving it immeasurably but also encouraged my use of footnotes in that book to give it more playful tone than was usual in transport books then and probably since.
I learnt a lot about what not to do from him and have always tried to heed much of his advice ever since. It must have worked to some extent because he later commissioned me to do a cover story for The Oldie on parks and told me he’d enjoyed A Walk in the Park.
Travis Elborough 