“John was really my only male friend.”

“John was a very different kind of guy to the other boys I knew. He was my first friend who wore glasses. He was always taking them off and polishing them. I found it fascinating.”

“I remember John looking… we used to think that John looked pretty cool.

"John was the only person I knew with an aquiline nose.”

“He was extremely attractive…not physically, although he was very cool-looking.”

"I can still see John now - checked shirt, slightly curly hair…. I remember thinking, ‘He looks good. I wouldn’t mind being in a group with him.’

"And there he is in massive closeup. I can study everything about him.”

"I would often sketch John when we worked together, often without him knowing it. It was so easy doing John because he had glasses, those sideboards…and that long, aquiline nose.”

“I would see him on the bus. I wouldn’t stare at him too hard in case he hit me.”

“I’d go through it all again, and have him slagging me off again just because he was so great; there was much more pleasure than has really come out.”

“I would say to him, ‘You look pretty good, the glasses are good’.

"I’m often thinking of him. I dream of him.”

“I particularly remember John and I would be squeezed in our little single bed.”

“I realize I’m telling this man that I love him and it’s like I’m publicly declaring this in front of all these people I don’t know. I sometimes wonder what I’m doing.”

“I recently bought a lot of drawings and writings by John. I have them on my wall so I get to look at them all the time.”

“Whenever other people [take off their glasses] it always reminds me of John.”

“I soon came to love that beery old breath. And I loved John.”

“Delcious boy, a delicious broth of a boy.”