When I try to think of the people, authors and creations that influenced me over the years (and continue to do so) there are so many that it’s easy to forget some of them. Then you lose one and you suddenly realise what a large hole they’re leaving behind and how much you owe them for sharing something so wonderful.

I woke up feeling sorry for myself this morning – still ill, still coughing – and then got the news via Twitter that Oliver Postgate had died. Now I just feel sorry for everyone outside of my generation and the UK who will never quite understand just how much an impact a Welsh steam engine and a saggy old cloth cat had on our psyche.

I just watched the opening of Bagpuss on YouTube and it still kills me:

I’d forgotten how HUGE he was…

Even Bagpuss himself, once he was asleep, was just an old, saggy cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams… But Emily loved him