Merlin Hanbury-Tenison

My father is stable but so is our hope

Robin Hanbury-Tenison at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival last year (credit: YouTube)

‘Your father is remarkable for his age’. I wouldn’t be able to count the number of times someone has said that to me over the last 20 years. It must be in the thousands. Everyone from the postman to fellow explorers to other farmers on Bodmin Moor. He has always been seen as invincible, indomitable and perennially young. A man who has behaved like a 30-year-old well into later life.

When I wrote a week ago that he had been rushed to Plymouth Hospital in an ambulance, sedated and placed on a ventilator due to complications arising from coronavirus, well-wishers were all positive and even upbeat about the situation. ‘If anyone can beat this, Robin can!’, ‘Your father is an ox! There is no way he will succumb’, ‘What a great story this will make for his next book!’. Messages like this flooded in from friends and family across the world.

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