My friend and mentor Peter Pegnall, who has died aged 76, was a poet, a paladin for literature. His stark, untrammelled lines deceive in their simplicity with rich illumination of human feeling and fragility.
In appearance Peter resembled a tousled Dylan Thomas, although unlike Thomas, he stopped drinking. His readings were charged with the measured music of his verse. He wrote luminous essays, while his critical authority was commanding.
