Sir, - It was heartening to read the recent tributes to Charles Acton, especially since they were patently sincere and genuine. As a (younger) colleague of his for many years, though in a different field, I can testify to his professionalism, his critical honesty, and his total devotion to his craft. He was erudite, painstaking and wide-ranging, and knew how to keep the reader interested. His record reviews, in particular, were always stimulating and knowledgeable.
Perhaps Charles could, on occasion, be an awkward colleague, but never for self-interested reasons; it was always in the interests of music, not himself. To have served his newspaper as a very active contributor for 30 years, and to have kept up such a degree of commitment and enthusiasm as he did, was admirable in itself. He will surely be remembered as the outstanding Irish music critic of his era, and indeed one of the best writing anywhere in the English-speaking world. - Yours, etc., Brian Fallon,
Manor Kilbride, Co. Wicklow.