For years they were estranged, but Keith Floyd's daughter put aside any differences between them to remember his passion for life.
Twenty-five-year-old Poppy, her brother Patrick, two of his four ex-wives and final partner Celia Martin led mourners at a humanist funeral service for the celebrity chef, who died on September 14 of a heart attack.
The poignant ceremony mixed humour with dashes of honesty and a good measure of the irreverence for which he was known. His coffin, made from banana leaves and draped with sunflowers, a reminder of his beloved Provence, was carried out for cremation to Waltz In Black by the Stranglers, the theme tune to his best-known television show.
Father and daughter had recently reconciled after a decade without speaking. She referred to their problems in a searingly truthful address that included references to his heavy drinking. "Whatever the pain and bitterness caused by your absence and however many paths that you took that shall never be mine, I would like to thank you for the passion, the wildness and the glorious colours you passed on to us, colours now engraved in our souls," she said.
His daughter also thanked him for "the lobster-catching, the love of France that we both share and that beautiful white Bentley we will probably now have to auction to pay for the funeral". Her voice faltering, she ended with a reference to a 1974 Pink Floyd song. "I hope you shine on up there like a crazy diamond," she said.
