Malcolm Bruce Bowen

Malcolm Bowen, son of Alwyn and Doreen Bowen, brother of Roger Bowen,grew up in the small mining town of Blaenavon, South Wales. He made his family very proud when he won a scholarship to Cambidge to study French and German. There he met my mother, Ursula Bowen, and they went on to have me 5 years after they married. He worked as a lexicographer for a while, and his knowledge of the English language was superb.
My father went on to work as editor for several magazines, and was respected and admired for his patience and skill at teaching younger colleagues. His writing style made even the most boring subject accessible to all.
He was a private, quiet man, yet with an impish sense of humour and a low tolerance for idiots! As he grew older, unfortunately he developed a drinking problem which we could do nothing to help him with, although we tried so hard. The recession of '92 hit him hard, and there were many stumbling blocks in his career that made him disheartened.
I was closest to him the year before he died. By then he had mellowed a great deal and he was more like the father I remembered from my childhood. We spent a lot of time together. One of my best memories of that time was when he took me on a river boat trip on the Thames, and then for a meal. We talked a lot. I felt like I had my father back.. the one who had helped me with my homework, who had teased me and made me laugh.
He and my mother got divorced a year before he died, but they still remained good friends. I know that she misses him greatly, even their heated debates!
His mother and father are heartbroken at his death. At their time of life- in their 90s- it seems inconceivable to them that their son should have been taken from them at auch a young age and before them.
He has created a void in his passing. He always said he would rather die than be helpless in hospital, so the sudden nature of his death was in some ways exactly how he wanted to go. That is a small comfort, but we would still give anything to have him with us still.