Mike Tilling

We are very fortunate at the P.ublished group of newspapers to have a large number of talented writers who are brimming with knowledge and can write clear, incisive prose about their favourite subjects. And perhaps the most knowledgeable of all, Mike Tilling, has sadly died.

Mike died at 2am on Tuesday the 6th August, just 6 weeks after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, having been admitted to hospital with Covid. He was 76.

Born in 1948 in Kingston-Upon-Hull, Mike was the youngest of four, he had an older brother, an older sister, and an adopted brother. He was married and had two daughters, now in their 40s. Mike also had four grandchildren, who he absolutely adored.

Trained as an English teacher, Mike taught in Algeria and Germany, then later moved back to Leicester. He continued his training to become a Master of Arts and Master of Educational Studies.

In 1984, Mike and his family moved to Scarborough where he worked as deputy head of Pindar school. He also worked as a writer for training materials and educational books.

Mike passionately loved the arts - painting, opera and theatre in particular - and often used to travel to visit Italy, especially Rome, where he made it his mission to see as many Caravaggio paintings as he could. He was also a regular visitor and supporter of the Scarborough art galleries.

His taste in music was wildly eclectic, from classical and opera to rock and pop, his most recent discovery being the music of Nightwish - that's a Finnish symphonic metal band and a far cry from his other favourite, the Philip Glass opera Akhenaten.

Not defined by any one category of the Arts, Mike also loved films and plays, often going to the Steven Joseph Theatre to write reviews for the Scarborough Evening News, Musical Theatre Review, Yorkshire Times, North East Post, Cumbria Times, and the Lancashire Times.

In the last 5 years Mike started painting and sketching, with the support of lessons at the North Yorkshire Art School in Scarborough. He also loved literature, read widely and was part of a book club.

The topic labelled as 'the arts' is so wide and diverse that it's hard for any one person to appreciate it all. But Mike certainly tried. Despite his relatively early death Mike managed to acquire an astonishingly wide knowledge of this huge subject and, helpfully for us in the media, had clear opinions about what was good art, and what was not. His reviews were honest, forthright and easy to understand. As an editor I couldn't ask for anything more. But more than that, Mike was good company and he will be greatly missed by me and all his friends in the media.