As a columnist, Gordon Boyle was buoyant. Thanks to his varied experience as a business leader and global traveller, his firmament was wide enough to emit all shades of the cultural and political prism. With Bahrain being his alma mater probably for the most productive and professionally rewarding phase of his life, the island had a place in most of his columns. For the likes of me who know him only through the columns that used to adorn the GDN, the essays opened a window to the wide range of exposure he had earned in various facets of life.
I had noticed a distinct prolificacy of the columnist in him all through the pandemic last year. While many had Covid-19 as the backdrop, the undying optimist in him never missed an opportunity to point out that it’s not apocalypse after all! The ethos ‘this too will pass’ used to resonate in his writings. Besides, some of the columns did deal with his native Scotland and there used to be a sumptuous spread of the local life splattered all over. Most of them had droplets of reference to Bahrain as well.
I think there was a mention about his illness too as a passing reference - not in a cathartic mode. He seemed to be at ease with himself or may be the entrepreneurial ventures and creative pursuits made him immune to the mental shackles of the disease. In any case, we the readers were the beneficiaries!
While we miss him, heavens will have a new joinee with sharp business acumen and the readers there shall be elated to partake the pearls of worldly wisdom he profusely imparts in his writings.
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