the Centre for Pagan Studies (CFPS), a Pagan organisation based in the Sussex hamlet of Maresfield that had been established in 1995. Befriending its founders, John Belham-Payne and his wife Julie Belham-Payne, she became the centre's patron and gave several lectures for the group. In 1997 Cooke died, leaving Valiente grief-stricken. Her final public speech was at the Pagan Federation's annual conference, held at Croydon's Fairfield Halls in November 1997; here she praised the work of early twentieth-century occultist Dion Fortune and urged the Wiccan community to accept homosexuals. Valiente's health was deteriorating as she was diagnosed first with diabetes and then terminal pancreatic cancer; increasingly debilitated, John Belham-Payne and two of her friends became her primary carers. In her last few days she was moved to the Sackville Nursing Home, there requesting that Belham-Payne publish an anthology of her poems after her death. She died on 1 September 1999, with Belham-Payne at her side. CFPS' barn in Maresfield, where an all-night vigil was held; those invited included Ralph Harvey, and Ronald Hutton. After this Pagan rite was completed, her coffin was cremated at Brighton's Woodvale crematorium, in an intentionally low-key service with John Belham-Payne, Doreen's last High priest as celebrant for the funeral. As per her wishes, Valiente's ashes were scattered in Sussex woodland. Her magical artefacts and manuscripts, including her Book of Shadows, were bequeathed to John Belham-Payne. Her book of poems was published posthumously in 2000, followed by an enlarged second edition in 2014. Personality Hutton characterised Valiente as "a handsome woman of striking, dark-haired, aquiline looks, possessed of a strong, enquiring, candid, and independent personality, and a gift for poetry and ritual". Belham-Payne noted that Valiente was "very tall, rather reserved and preferred to be in the background", while Doreen Valiente Foundation Trustee, Ashley Mortimer described her as "sensible, practical, decent, honest and, perhaps most importantly, pragmatic". The writer Leo Ruickbie described her as "a plain, owlishly bespectacled woman with a slight stoop and a friendly twinkle in her eye". Throughout her life, Valiente remained a believer in the Murrayite Witch-Cult theory despite its having been academically discredited by the 1970s. Valiente had a strong dislike of unexpected visitors, and would often refuse to answer the door to those who knocked unannounced. She was an avid fan of football, and closely followed the World Cup, refusing to open the door to any visitors while she was