Family, friends, admirers all brought their own special memories to a moving farewell for this modest but uniquely talented artist.

They occupied all the seats in the chapel at Huddersfield Crematorium, Fixby, last Friday. They stood, three and four deep, around the walls and spilled into the room outside. Conservative estimates put the number of people wishing to pay a last tribute to Mr Brook, who died aged 81 on November 25, at well over 200.

The minister of St Matthew's Church, Rastrick, the Rev Steph Jenner, led the service and introduced words and music close to Peter's heart.
His granddaughter, Laura, read a poem, "A Little Song of Life" by Lizette Woodworth Reese, which Mr Brook introduced her to at what she described as a difficult time in her life.

"Glad that I live am I that the sky is blue,

Glad for the country lanes and the fall of dew,
After the sun the rain, after the rain the sun ..."

Mr Brook's close friend, John Hellowell, spoke of how he came to regard him as his mentor. Mr Brook taught Mr Hellowell at the then Sowerby Bridge Grammar School. It was the beginning of a friendship that lasted for 40 years.

"He was my inspiration," said Mr Hellowell, who described how they both found beauty in a crumbling mill chimney.
The music chosen for the service painted its own picture of Mr Brook at work, "Morning Has Broken" and the Christmas hymn . . .

"In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago."

A fitting piece, a fitting farewell.