'Lady Oracle' by Margaret Atwood

5 August 2026

'Lady Oracle' is an early novel by Margaret Atwood, first published in 1976. I hadn't heard of the book when I started reading it and had no idea what to expect. I found the opening chapters, in which the narrator arrives at her holiday home in Italy, having apparently faked her own death, quite confusing, but once she started to tell the story of her childhood in Toronto the novel grabbed my attention. With hindsight it was fun coming to this tale without any prior knowledge of it, so I won't give much away here. I enjoyed the book but I still feel a bit unsure what I thought of it. On the face of it, its quite a miserable story - but it is told with a comic flair and boasts a cast of brilliantly eccentric characters (who all seem to have the habit of reappearing just when you had forgotten them!). 'Lady Oracle' does have the feel of an early work, perhaps throwing too many ideas into the mix. But it is clearly written by a skillful author - and the fact that the first person narrator is also a novelist makes it hard to know how much of her account of her life we should believe. An intriguing and entertaining read.

WOMAD 2026

29 July 2026

When the WOMAD Festival moved to Charlton Park in Wiltshire in 2007 (reviewed here in August 2007) that first festival at the new site was beset by problems, exacerbated by the constant rain that created a sea of mud. Last weekend's first post-Charlton Park WOMAD, at the festival's new home of Neston Park near Corsham in Wiltshire, seemed to have learned much from the 2007 experience - and also benefited from near perfect weather. For the first outing at this new venue (after a fallow year with no festival in 2025), everything seemed to go extremely smoothly. Neston Park feels smaller than Charlton Park (the WOMAD programme described it as "more intimate") but the numbers attending seemed to fit the space well. I soon got the hang of the new layout of the festival arena (though it took me until Saturday afternoon to realise that the beautiful path through the sunflower field provided a handy shortcut between the two halves of the arena). I'm not sure they had got the positioning of all the stages quite right but I expect the necessary tweaks will be in place by next year's festival. And, for me, 2026 was, musically, the best WOMAD for quite a while. I saw 23 performances over the three days, including 15 full sets, and there were many many highlights. It was great to see WOMAD founder Peter Gabriel on stage on Saturday afternoon to pay tribute to the WOMAD Festival Director Chris Smith who is retiring after 20 years in charge. Later in the day I found myself standing immediately behind Peter Gabriel in the crowd in the Sunflower Tent, watching the band LYR, featuring the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. I really enjoyed Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek and their 1970s psychedelic version of traditional Anatolian folk music. I was charmed by the intergenerational group representing the Lăutăresele Şaraimanic project that celebrates music from the variety of different ethnic communities in Romania. While these performances of Anatolian and Romanian folk music presented the traditional in an innovative modern way, the Mexican brass band Mixanteña de Santa Cecilia performed music from the Pacific coast of Mexico in a way that appeared to be completely historically authentic, with traditional costumes and dancers, but was no less thrilling. Bénin International Musical's "incendiary voodoo sound of West Africa" was engaging and varied. And I loved the Brooklyn disco funk of Say She She. Amidst these big danceable shows on the main stage, I'm pleased I also found the time to see Pakistani musician Ustad Noor Bakhsh on the smaller Village Stage. He plays the benju - a zither with typewriter-style keys, played like a lap-steel guitar - and he only found international recognition when already in his late seventies. His hypnotic fast-picking tunes found an enthusiastic audience at WOMAD and provided a beautiful opportunity for contemplation. But my favourite moments of the 2026 WOMAD Festival were the polyphonic vocals of the Occitan group Barrut from Southern France and the high energy singing and dancing of Galician female folk trio Tanxugueiras from Northern Spain. In both cases I found myself thrilled to have chosen to be at those stages at that time and thinking I will remember these performances for many years.

'When the Wind Blows' by Cyril Hare

28 July 2026

Gareth Coles and I have enjoyed a long-running debate about the rules of detective fiction over many years. I have written here several times (initially in May 2014) about my own first two rules: 1. The reader should not know any more than the detective and 2. The detective should work out 'who done it' from the clues they unearth, rather than being handed the solution on a plate by a turn of events. I'm very grateful to Gareth for giving me a copy of 'When the Wind Blows' by Cyril Hare - a detective novel that could have been designed specifically with new in mind. A murder mystery very much in the style of the golden age of detective fiction (though published a little later, in 1949), it not only follows my rules but revolves around a symphony concert by a local amateur orchestra. Cyril Hare was the pen name of the judge Gordon Clark. He was a prolific writer of detective stories and 'When the Wind Blows' demonstrates his legal knowledge. Though it deals with a brutal murder, the book has a gentle comic tone that reminded me of 'Three Men in a Boat' by Jerome K Jerome. It unintentionally reveals much about the social norms of they period, some aspects of which feel quite uncomfortably dated now. But, although it is set more than 75 years ago, I can confirm that the description of an amateur orchestra committee meeting remains hilariously accurate! 

'Whistler' by Ann Patchett

26 July 2026

From the knowledge I cleaned from 'These Precious Days', Ann Patchett's book of essays (reviewed here in June 2026), on starting to read her new novel, 'Whistler' (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by the author), I quickly realised that this was going to be a particularly autobiographical novel. Daphne, through whose eyes we discover this story, has three fathers (her biological father followed by two stepfathers) - as does Ann Patchett herself. There are several other links between the character and her author. And 'Whistler', like the essays in 'These Precious Days' focuses on themes of mortality, family relationships, storytelling and the writing process. It's a confident, mature novel that is beautifully constructed. Several times, something is referred to that hasn't yet been explained and I found myself flicking back to see if I had missed something. But soon you realise you can trust Ann Patchett: everything will be explained in time. You are in safe hands and the way stories are told is part of the story she is telling. 'Whistler' is a deceptively simple family tale - beautiful, sad, moving and funny.

'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Christopher Hampton

23 July 2026

Christopher Hampton's play 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses', based on the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, was first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985 with a cast including Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan, Juliet Stevenson and Fiona Shaw. In that production the part of the naïve teenager Cécile de Volanges was played by Lesley Manville. 41 years later, Lesley Manville takes the lead as the Marquise de Merteuil in Marianne Elliott's new production of the play for the National Theatre, which we saw in a NT Live screening at the Rufus Centre in Flitwick on Wednesday. Lesley Manville is wonderful, as is her partner in crime Aidan Turner as the Vicomte de Valmont who plays his part with a lupine glee - like the wolf in Red Riding Hood. Marianne Elliott's production is on a grand scale, with an extensive cast, wonderfully choreographed by Tom Jackson Greaves. But I think the play worked better on the intimate stage of the Donmar Warehouse in Josie Rourke's 2016 production (reviewed here in January 2016). Christopher Hampton's script is delicious, with its Oscar Wilde-like reversal of conventional morals, but the seduction scenes now feel very uncomfortable, the perpetrators' eventual comeuppance never excusing the damage done to their victims. 

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Prom

22 July 2026

On Tuesday we were at the Royal Albert Hall in London for our first visit to the BBC Proms in many years. The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by John Storgårds, were in impressive form. The programme opened with 'Tales of a Summer Sea' - a piece by Betsy Jolas, who is due to celebrate her 100th birthday this year. This was a belated UK premiere for her 1977 reworking of elements of the incidental music she wrote in 1962 for a production of 'The Tempest'. It's an atmospheric piece that conjures up the power of the ocean through a large orchestra including masses of percussion and two sets of timpani. We then heard Sueye Park perform the Sibelius 'Violin Concerto' - one of my favourite pieces and one I have played in the orchestra for on several occasions. Sueye Park played beautifully and delicately but the acoustics of the vast Albert Hall made it quite a strain to hear the solo violin. John Storgårds restrained the orchestra volume very effectively but I would have preferred to hear both soloist and accompaniment a little more off the leash. The second half of the concert featured 'Also sprach Zarathustra' - Richard Strauss's orchestral tone poem inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's huge poem. The opening fanfare must be one of the most famous moments in classical music, from its use in the film '2001: A Space Odyssey', but the 35 minutes that follow are rarely heard. Which is a shame as it is a great piece - powerful, playful, spectacular and serene. Though I know the work from recordings, I had never heard it live before and it was really helpful to see it performed in order to make sense of the different sections of the music and the instrumentation. It was wonderful to hear the mighty Albert Hall organ. The tubular bells chiming midnight, heralding the quiet, enigmatic ending of the piece, rang out brilliantly from the balcony at the top of the Albert Hall. It was a very entertaining concert, excellently performed.

London Athletics Meet 2026

22 July 2026

On Saturday we made our annual visit to the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the Diamond League London Athletics Meet. I was looking forward to our first opportunity to see the remarkable world record-holder poll vaulter Armand Duplantis, but sadly he had to withdraw from the competition part-way through with an injury - though  he still managed to come in second place. We also saw Keely Hodgkinson beating Femke Broeders-Bol in an exciting 800m. But the highlight of a brilliant sunny afternoon of athletics was seeing Josh Kerr break the world record for the mile - a record that had stood for 27 years. His final lap was a thrilling race against the clock with the whole sold-out crowd of 60,000 on its feet cheering him on.

Buckingham Music Festival

16 July 2026

On Wednesday, we made a first visit to the Buckingham Music Festival at the Radcliffe Centre, a lovely converted church concert venue in the middle of Buckingham (where we previously saw the Adderbury Ensemble, reviewed here in October 2024). In the morning we saw a piano recital by Craig Greene which featured three early sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 3 was composed in 1775 during his early years visiting Munich. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 was composed in 1795 and dedicated to his teacher, Joseph Haydn. And Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 1 was his Opus 1, composed in 1853 when he was just 20. It was fascinating to hear the contrast in these early works by the three composers, brilliantly played by Craig Greene, and to hear the development in the use of the piano over a relatively short period of time from the 1770s to the 1850s. The hall was packed for this morning recital. After lunch, we returned to the Radcliffe Centre for a performance by Oxus, a string quartet from Oxford, who presented a programme 'From the Steppes of Central Asia', inspired by the peoples and vast landscapes of the Caucasus and beyond. This featured movements from string quartets by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Borodin, which drew on local folk music across Russia and Ukraine. They also played arrangements of traditional pieces, including a Ukrainian folk song, music collected in Kazakhstan, an Armenian traditional tune, and finishing with a medley from 'Fiddler on the Roof'. It was a very entertaining and varied programme, nicely introduced by the members of the quartet. A very pleasant way to spend a Wednesday afternoon.