Naomi Lewis Obituary
Naomi Lewis - essayist, anthologist, reteller, poet and reviewer - has died aged 97.
When I first started being invited to children's books events (launches and parties) in the mid 1990s, Lewis was a regular guest -slight, somewhat hunched (she would already have been in her late 80s), usually wearing black velvet slippers. It is only recently that I had begun to mark her absence, and indeed wondered if I had missed an obituary.
We often found ourselves together, both making the same enquiry when the the trays of finger food came round (she was a vegetarian).
She lived for literature and animals, and spent most of her life in Red Lion Square. I very much regret not making her the subject of an ACHUKA feature, while she was still in her flat and still actively writing, reviewing and lecturing.