I had the great pleasure of knowing Hugo for a few years before his death in November 2003. We communicated only by e-mail, but I felt we became real friends and I valued contact with him.

Conversing with him for some time through the Medit-Plants e-mail forum, we eventually came to work together on a project that became this web site.

It was after we'd already forged a friendship that I learned, from a third party, that Hugo's official title was The 8th Lord Latymer! Nothing in this man's dealings with me has suggested to me this rank - he was congenial, jovial, and self-effacing to a fault.

His book, The Mediterranean Gardener, I have always held in high regard - I especially suggest it to novice gardeners for his careful and clear discussion of the basic principles of appropriate gardening in mediterranean climates and its good descriptions of the common plant palette sometimes neglected in more comprehensive works. I am pleased to see that this work continues to remain in print.