My dear departed friend Jim Holder was a window cleaner for much of his life, working mainly the colleges and larger houses in and around Oxford. He worked out of the Victor Street flat in Jericho that he and wife Carol had occupied ever since their marriage in 1976 and which was the base from which they became some of the best loved members of their community. Rarely seen out except as a couple, they ventured out on two or three days a week to a selection of the local pubs, where the order was invariably a pint and a half of Guinness - with Jim especially vigilant as to the quality of the brew. On other days a small group might convene for an hour or two at the flat, aka The Holders’ Arms.
A career as a window cleaner resulted in a huge catalogue of often hilarious anecdotes which Jim would frequently and gleefully recall. But it in no way precluded an interest in more intellectual pursuits and Jim amassed a large library of English literature over the years and would expound passionately on the qualities of this or that author. Graham Greene was among his favourites and it was on Jim’s persuasive recommendation that I too became a fan of the great novelist. His other passions included horse racing, on which small investments were frequently made with mixed results and Arsenal football club which was loyally supported for little return - at least in recent years.
Jim passed away this week at 79 - just four and a half months after Carol had succumbed to cancer and from whose passing he was, in hindsight, never going to recover. But, like Carol, he will be remembered with great affection by all who knew him. Among the many books he lent me was a copy of Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It contains a quote Jim would sometimes intone darkly over a beer in his best Long John Silver delivery: “Thems that die’ll be the lucky ones!”