PEACE AT LAST..

This is the small village of Chilthorne Domer, not far from Yeovil in the bountiful county of Somerset. The village goes back at least to the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was known as Cilterne and the Domer bit comes from the original owners of the manor. It has a church which has its origins in the 13th century and a manor house which was built in the 17th century. The manor house has its own well and in the garden there is a six seater "privy" which was built about 1720 and was in regular use until 1939. Not a lot of people know that.

But the village, with its current population of 569 and despite having its own Peer of the Realm, Baroness Susan Miller of Chilthorne Domer, is hardly known beyond the Somerset levels. But it was the home village of one of my wife`s closest and much loved friends - someone who brought that West Country chirpiness to our lives, someone who was always cheerful and willing to do anything for anyone.

Now towards the end of February, I mentioned that I felt that the attention given to the passing of Jade Goody was in stark contrast to the dignified silence in which countless thousands suffered the same fate as she did. Well, our good friend from Chilthorne Domer left us over the weekend after a long and brave battle against cancer. She will leave a big void in our community and we will miss her cheerfulness, her smiles and laughter which shone through her pain, but most of all we will miss her just being around.

No OK Magazine. No Max Clifford. No messages from Gordon Brown. Just a dignified, quiet, peaceful leaving of one of the countless thousands, which says so much more than all the `publicity` in the world ever can.