Influential singer-songwriter John Martyn - who died last year aged 60 - left his two sons out of his will. Three-quarters of his £82,000 estate will go to his partner Teresa Walsh, while the remaining 25 per cent goes to his daughter, Mhairi McGeachy. But Martyn's will, signed on June 28, 2007, made no mention of his other two children, Wesley and Spenser. Martyn left an estate worth £312,000, which was reduced to £82,000 after his affairs were settled.

JOHN MARTYN
(i.m. 1948-2009)

In the picture-perfect scenery of Challes-les-Eaux
in seventy-five, locked in private darkness,
I played your lost indefinable music
on a tired loop of tape: Solid Air –
its title track an elegy for a friend you couldn’t save,
while you were destined to survive.
With a brawler’s zest for living,
you absorbed the booze and heartbreak.

When I heard you had died I found you
in the afterlife of YouTube, restraining tears
for grief you’d caused,
knowing your muse, Serendipity,
had always been a harsh one, that even now
there could have been no easier way.

David Cooke

I received this a week ago and today, what would have been John's 61st birthday, seems a good day to publish this elegy. David writes:

The partner of the late folk and blues artist John Martyn yesterday collected an OBE on behalf of the musician, who died in January at the age of 60. Teresa Walsh collected the honour from the Prince of Wales at the Buckingham Palace investiture service.