The widow of former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said today his love was the "greatest gift" she would ever receive.
Mr Cook, who quit the British Cabinet over the Iraq war, died suddenly on Saturday during a holiday with his wife in Scotland. He was 59.
"I loved and admired my husband more than I can say - for his generosity, his tolerance, his integrity and his great joy in life," Gaynor Cook said in a statement, speaking publicly for the first time since her husband's death.
Former British Home Secretary Robin Cook
"His love was the greatest gift I will ever receive".
Mr Cook collapsed while walking with his wife on Ben Stack mountain in northwest Scotland. A rescue helicopter took him to hospital in Inverness, where he was pronounced dead.
A post-mortem examination began today to determine the cause of the MP's death. It is thought that he may have had a heart attack and then injured himself as he fell.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair praised Mr Cook as an intellectual heavyweight despite their clash over the decision to back the United States in Iraq in 2003.
Colleagues praised Mr Cook, who served as foreign secretary from 1997 to 2001, as one of the outstanding political debaters of his era. He served as Leader of the House of Commons, the government's top representative in parliament, until 2003.