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Requiem First Night Approaches
A friend of mine describes the Verdi Requiem as religion as high opera, and it certainly is full of drama and glorious tunes. You can watch a video of some of us singing the Dies Irae in protest at threatened cuts to the funding of our beloved Blackheath Halls here, and I promise we will…
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Early Music part 2
Early music is a passion I share with my partner A, and a chance discovery led to the inspiration for an historical novel, The Cold Time. Sometime in 1993 , arriving early for a film at the Odeon at Marble Arch, we headed into HMV to browse, and I picked up a new release in…
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March of the Women
Sandi Toksvig, Sue Perkins, Susan Calman, Marin Alsop… sorry, what? The finest lesbian (or lesbitarian as Calman would have it) comedians of the decade all on stage together and … the world’s leading woman conductor? OK you got me, I didn’t know what I’d got tickets for, but I’m very glad I was there, for Mirth…
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Early Music
Music I found early, and Early Music I found… My passion for words nearly got in the way of my interest in music, and I was almost oblivious to tunes until I introduced myself to a wide variety of music via the library I worked in when I was nineteen. I think I took music…
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Misty moisty morning
At risk of sounding like a weekending townie, I love the Limpley Stoke Valley. I even love the name. My best girl, A, was born in Trowbridge and brought up in Bath and the surrounding area. Consequently I have native-by-proxy rights. Whenever A gets what she calls ‘roots problems’ we hie off to Bath or…
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How do you do that?
At some point writers will always be asked ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ If I tried to answer that I would probably never finish, and consequently never write another story. This post is in response to a different question that I have been asked- about the details that end up in my stories…
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Stone Carving for Beginners
Sometimes talking to an expert isn’t enough, I have to try something out for myself. I started writing a novel about thirteenth century musicians and masons over ten years ago. I know what is going to happen in The Cold Time but I struggle with making it convincing. I’ve read a lot of books, I’ve…
