Read Emma Thompson’s moving tribute to Alan Rickman

I hate very few things in life, in fact hate is a word I am very unfamiliar with.

 I do however hate cancer hands down.

I hate its creeping ways and the way it lurks in the shadows and then strangles with no love or compassion.

I saw this first hand in the loss of my grandparents and mother in law.

Just this morning news of Celine Dion’s husband and how he lost his battle with cancer has echoed across the world.

In one week two British icons lost, first the legendary David Bowie and news broke yesterday of Alan Rickman’s loss with the filth know as cancer.

Below is a tribute written by Emma Thompson for her late and  dear friend Alan.

Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye.

What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humour, intelligence, wisdom, and kindness. His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word.

That intransigence which made him the great artist that he was — his inedible and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him.

He was the finest of actors and directors. I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next. I consider myself hugely privileged to have worked with him so many times and to have been directed by him.

He was the ultimate ally. In life, art and politics. I trusted him absolutely.

He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.