"I've been very lucky in my career, with a ringside seat to history"

While I can't join in with the personal eulogies to the late Tom Stoddart - a fellow Morpethian and, by all accounts, a modest, courageous and generous man - I can gesture in the direction of this Guardian gallery, which is as good a tribute to his professional talents as an acclaimed photojournalist as you're likely to find.

Whether he was recording the Miners' Strike, bearing witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall, capturing the misery and horror inflicted on innocent people caught up in conflict or shooting Tony Blair's 1997 election campaign from behind the scenes, his eye for an image was second to none. The picture of the leaping Chinese gymnast genuinely has to be seen to be believed.

Unfortunately, the pandemic largely put paid to any ideas I may have had of visiting his Extraordinary Women exhibition at the Side Gallery in Newcastle earlier this year - but there's a copy of the accompanying book heading my way for Christmas, so that's some consolation.