Day Fidel grilled me on Scottish salmon
When Fidel Castro stood down through ill health a decade ago, just before his 80th birthday, he beat the Americans one last time.
Their assumption was he would die in office, resistance would collapse and they would walk in to fill the void.
Instead, there was an orderly transition to his brother Raul, who defied expectations by introducing liberal economic reforms.
These helped towards better relations with the US under Barack Obama.
We first met in 1998 when I became UK trade minister and made it a mission to normalise our commercial relationships with Cuba, which had become deep-frozen in deference to US demands.
In Havana, I went straight to dinner with Fidel – a slightly surreal experience.
While he could talk at great length, he had an insatiable appetite for information. At one encounter, he started asking about the Scots fish farming industry, of which I have modest knowledge.
Within five minutes, I was being quizzed about feedto-output ratios and was out of my depth.
I promised to send an expert, which I did.
Cuba is far from perfect and 50 years of economic blockade, ruthlessly enforced by Washington, have left their scars. On the other hand, nobody starves in Cuba. It has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, a lower infant mortality rate than the US and a medical system which serves not only Cubans but many countries in the developing world.
Fidel expressed little emotional or ideological attachment to the Soviet Union. It had been a marriage of necessity.
When the US tried to invade Cuba in 1961 and followed up with their embargo as well as deranged assassination attempts, where else was Cuba to turn in that Cold War era?
To appreciate why Fidel Castro will be mourned by so many Cubans (while hated by others in exile), it is necessary to remember the appalling dictatorship and poverty most of them endured prior to the revolution – and the total control exercised by the US.
Those who have been to Cuba will be familiar with the Malecon, the vast promenade in Havana, now a Unesco World Heritage Site. At the time of the revolution in 1959, the dictator Batista and his Mafia allies were planning to knock it down and turn it into casinos.
Maybe Donald Trump would be running it today.
Fidel Castro created a very different Cuba and inspired hope in other countries of Latin America.
I hope that the best of his legacy will be maintained while Cuba meets the aspirations of a new generation.
I’ll never forget going to dinner with Fidel. It was surreal