I had the good fortune to get to know Kirsty Milne (Other lives, 20 July) in 2003 when she was, like me, on sabbatical at Harvard. It was an extraordinary privilege to meet someone who was so passionate about life and the world of ideas, as well as so loyal to the people who were friends.
Kirsty did that most difficult of things, changing career in her 40s, directed to do so by her passions and interests. She had made it as a journalist, worked for the New Statesman and the Scotsman, and then took the opportunity of becoming a Nieman fellow at Harvard. Less determined people would have done their fellowship and returned to their previous occupation. Not her.
And so began her journey back into academic life, her PhD on the idea of vanity fair, and in the midst of this, her cancer at a shockingly young age. It is an extraordinary tribute to her determination, her passion for her subject and for life, that she still completed the doctorate.
Her remission from cancer gave her an all-too-brief time in which to do so, and turn her thesis into a book, to be published next year. The quality of that work was not in doubt, and a prestigious fellowship had already been offered for further work, as her illness took a turn for the worse.
Kirsty was a very special person. She was ferocious in argument, certain of her principles, and a profoundly decent and good person. I will remember her infectious laugh and her deeply held values.