Brian Nisbet obituary

My friend Brian Nisbet, who has died aged 56 of the neurological disorder multiple system atrophy (MSA), was a careers adviser and a published poet.

He was born in Haddington, East Lothian, to Joseph, a minister of religion, and his wife, Beryl, but brought up in Belfast, with his brothers Stuart and Kenneth (his twin); one legacy of the move was his remarkable hybrid accent. His degree in Semitic languages from Queen’s University Belfast was followed by postgraduate studies in divinity at Trinity College, Dublin, and he might have become a theologian or minister himself, but seeing Samuel Beckett’s Endgame radically changed his outlook. He became a committed careers adviser, ultimately at the University of Sussex, and later worked voluntarily with young people with special needs.