The name of someone I was at boarding school with (two years above) has just appeared in the papers in connection with having been killed suddenly. I'm shaken by it to the point of suddenly completely being unable to concentrate on anything, but think that my feelings are wholly inappropriate: I was never big friends with him at school, even though we were both into our cricket, and I haven't had any contact with him, even on Facebook, since I left 8 years ago.

So why is it that when you hear of the death of someone who, comparatively, you barely knew, it's still an awful shock? I was probably less weirded out when my father died, and that's saying something. It's just really, really bizarre.