Man of her dreams

THIS week's Times obituary of wartime diarist Joan Rice quotes her rapturous first impressions of her husband-to-be, Hugh Rice (Ma B 27-33):

"refreshingly unsentimental and with unbelievably beautiful manners… My heart is singing wildly and madly with joy. Here he is come at last…"

It also gives a solid summary of his career, which is more than The Blue could offer when he died in 1988.

He and Joan were the parents of the lyricist Sir Tim Rice.