It's an odd thing, but of all the famous types who've died in 2016, Terry Wogan is

[Burney]

the one I find hardest to adjust to. Whenever I'm reminded he's dead, it comes as a shock. And this despite the fact that I wasn't a particular fan of his and didn't listen to his radio show.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

David Bowie for me. Although I lost a close personal friend so in the real world that's the one I'm finding it harder to adjust to.

[Burney]

David Bowie for me. Although I lost a close personal friend so in the real world that's the one I'm finding it harder to adjust to.

While I loved Bowie's music, nothing he'd done since the early 80s really interested me, so he didn't feel like a presence. Wogan, on the other hand, has been around and visible all my life. My mum used to listen to him when I was a nipper and I used to watch Blankety Blank on a Friday, etc, etc. He's just always been around in the background and I find it slightly odd every time I remember he's not.

Please note that I'm not comparing it to the loss of an actual person in one's life, merely saying that his death doesn't feel as remote to me as celebrity deaths normally do.

I'm sorry for your loss, btw.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

Thank you.

I hear what you're saying. But for me the loss we feel at the death of someone we haven't known is a narcissistic one. We feel them when we feel a part of us has gone. For me, although Bowie had done most of his best work by 1980, what hit me with his death was how someone I'd first liked when I was a schoolboy and saw as "futuristic" was now reduced to a bunch of ashes in sme rosebush. These deaths are memento moris for us.

[Burney]

Thank you.

I hear what you're saying. But for me the loss we feel at the death of someone we haven't known is a narcissistic one. We feel them when we feel a part of us has gone. For me, although Bowie had done most of his best work by 1980, what hit me with his death was how someone I'd first liked when I was a schoolboy and saw as "futuristic" was now reduced to a bunch of ashes in sme rosebush. These deaths are memento moris for us.

I agree on the narcissism - anyone who claims to feel 'grief' for someone they never met is ridiculous. The most I feel is a momentary puzzlement.

[Lar d'Arse]

Grief is certainly the wrong word but with Bowie it doesn't matter that his best years were behind him by the time he did Scary Monsters. That is not to say that some of his work post then was not excellent by the way.

I still return again and again to his music - more so than with any other artist. So regardless of when his music was recorded I still felt and feel a strange sense of emptiness whenever I remind myself he is dead. However I love the fact that the music never dies.

Still all pales into insignificance compared to losing someone close.....