With so many friends already having passed away during the year, today I’m mourning Antonio Skarmeta. Like his own hero, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Antonio was a patriot, a diplomat and a great writer. His novel Ardiente Paciencia (Burning Patience) was the basis for the Oscar-nominated film Il Postino as well as the musical I’m developing with Michael Jeffrey, The Postman and the Poet.
I shall never forget Antonio’s help and support and his hospitality, together with his wife Nora, at the Embassy in Berlin when he was Chilean ambassador to Germany in 2003. May he rest in peace.
