Sad news, indeed, for one so creative to go so young. It's been years since I've read the series, and all of the brilliant excerpts here make it clear I need to do so again.

My favorite concept from the series is the spaceship that is rendered invisible as it lands on the cricket pitch (IIRC) by a SEP field. This is the Somebody Else's Problem field, which causes anyone who happens to look at the impossibly technically advanced craft that has just appeared out of the sky and landed on Earth is Somebody Else's Problem - and thus, they ignore it.