Cruise to Hamburg, Rotterdam and Bruges

11 November 2026

We had a lovely autumnal cruise last week, on the P&O ship Ioana. We visited Hamburg, where we walked around the pretty Speicherstadt warehouse district with its huge red brick warehouses reflected in the water of wide canals. We had two days in Rotterdam, from where we caught the train to The Hague, visiting the Mauritshuis Museum to see lots of Rembrandts, Vermeer’s 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' and 'The Goldfinch' by Fabritius. In Rotterdam itself we walked around the Oude Haven (old harbour) to look at the Cube Houses: 40 tilted cubes were designed, by the Dutch architect Piet Blom, to be like urban treehouses. We also saw the modern Markthal - the largest archway in Europe, which houses the largest artwork in the Netherlands: the 'Horn of Plenty'. Finally we returned to Bruges, where we had the best hot chocolate since our last visit to Bruges in 2019.

'Polostan Book 1' by Neal Stephenson

1 November 2026

Neal Stephenson's epic novel 'Polostan Book 1' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by January LaVoy) is a strange but enjoyable romp through 1930s USA and USSR. At times it felt like a melding of Amor Towles' brilliant novels 'A Gentleman in Moscow' (reviewed here in September 2021) and 'The Lincoln Highway' (reviewed here in February 2022) - showing us the reality of life inside communist Russia and life on the run in gangster-era America, resembling and paying tribute to the exploits of Bonnie and Clyde. Dawn (also known by her Russian name Aurora) is a young woman who has grown up in St Petersburg (where her father was a communist revolutionary) and Montana (where her mother's family come from). By 1933 she has been eye-witness to a series of important events in both countries (some featuring real historical characters) and is wanted by the FBI and the Russian OGPU. We learn her story gradually, through an innovative narrative structure - much of which involves scenes of her being interrogated or tortured by the Soviet authorities, interspersed with the stories she tells them about her earlier life. At times in the book we are simultaneously following Dawn in three separate timelines. 'Polostan' is initially a bit confusing but develops into a series of wonderful set-piece scenes and manages to incorporate politics, engineering, nuclear physics and polo. As the title suggests, Dawn's story may have only just begun and I would be happy to read more.

'Caller Unknown' by Gillian McAllister

28 October 2026

A new thriller by Gillian McAllister is always a treat. Having enjoyed 'Famous Last Words (reviewed here in January 2026), I was eager to get hold of her new novel 'Caller Unknown', and it didn't disappoint. She describes 'Caller Unknown' as her first 'suspense novel': I have found all of her books incredibly scary and suspenseful, but whereas the setup in her previous stories has always been a slow burn, this one launches you straight into the trauma from page 1. Gillian McAllister is at her best when contrasting everyday relatable family dynamics with a world of crime and violence. 'Caller Unknown' is perhaps the ultimate example of the battle between trying to do the right thing and protecting your loved-ones. It's a story that feels like you need to read it from behind the sofa, or peeking between your fingers, but simultaneously one that you cannot stop reading to find out what happens. It's also a good example of a thriller that only works as a book: without giving too much away, one vital twist depends on the assumptions you make about what you are reading and wouldn't work in the same way in a film or TV version.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

27 October 2026

As I've mentioned here many times before, the composer Malcolm Arnold played trumpet in the Northampton Symphony Orchestra as a schoolboy in Northampton. So the orchestra has always had a close connection with Arnold. Over the last 21 years, since the founding of the annual Malcolm Arnold Festival, we have often performed as part of the festival. But it's been three years between our last NSO contribution to the Malcolm Arnold Festival (reviewed here in October 2023) and our concert last Saturday at St Matthew's Church in Northampton as part of the 2026 Festival. 

Our concert on Saturday featured a mix of pieces by Malcolm Arnold and Dmitri Shostakovich. The two composers first met in May 1957 during the Prague Spring Festival, where Arnold was attending as a guest of the Union of Czechoslovak Composers and representing the British Musicians' Union. They met a number of times over the years in their roles representing their respective national composer organisations, with their final meeting taking place in Prague in 1966. The Russian composer left a lasting impression on Malcolm Arnold, heavily influencing his later work. 

We opened the concert with the 'Philharmonic Concerto' by Malcolm Arnold - a powerful work from 1976 with aggressive outer movements sandwiching a delicate slow movement that featured impressive solos by Hilary Glanville (viola), Richard Smith (violin) and John Whittall (trombone). I also loved the thunderous end to the piece by Keith Crompton on timpani.

We then played the 'Symphony No 9' by Shostakovitch - a shorter, lighter piece than his other symphonies, reminiscent of the 'Classical Symphony' by Prokofiev. It requires less sheer power and volume from the orchestra than most Shostakovich symphonies but features fiendishly difficult rhythms, needing a lightness of touch and much concentration. Our performance went really well, with wonderful solos throughout the orchestra, including Graham Tear (flute), Sarah Mourant (oboe), Naomi Muller (clarinet: an amazing solo at the start of the second movement, becoming a lovely clarinet duet with Rob Reid), Georgina Neil (piccolo: including an impossibly long held note to finish the second movement) and Terry Mayo (trumpet). But the most incredible moment in the concert was the long unaccompanied bassoon solo spanning the end of the fourth and the start of the fifth movements, perfectly played by Sian Bunker. I was sitting directly behind Sian and realised halfway through her solo that I was actually holding my breath. I think all of us around her were frozen while we willed her on - nervous on Sian's behalf while she exuded a calm confidence and played beautifully.

The second half of the concert opened with the 'Rhapsody: The Sound Barrier' by Arnold, featuring his music from the 1952 David Lean film. We followed this with the 'Oboe Concerto' by Ruth Gipps - who was a contemporary of Malcolm Arnold at the Royal College of Music: a beautiful performance by Emmett Byrne. I enjoyed accompanying the concerto: it's a really nice piece that deserves to be better known. The final Malcolm Arnold piece in the programme was the rarely heard 'Little Suite No 3 (The Manx Suite)', written in 1990.

We finished the concert with Shostakovich's glorious 'Festive Overture' - a stunning end to a great concert, carefully directed by our excellent conductor John Gibbons. There was lovely playing throughout the orchestra but this concert really belonged to our brilliant woodwind section.

Rachel Broadbent

23 October 2026

On Friday afternoon we were at Ampthill Methodist Church to see the oboist Rachel Broadbent, accompanied by Krystal Tunnicliffe, as part of the Ampthill Recitals series. Rachel, who lives locally, is a busy freelance orchestral player, soloist, chamber musician, oboe teacher and chamber music coach who also composes music for the oboe. She gave a brilliant performance (to an audience including some of her pupils), despite struggling with a bad cold and the storm approaching outside. She played oboe sonatas by Loeillet and Saint-Seans, a Brahms song, 'To the Nightingale', arranged for Cor Anglais and piano, one of her own compositions for solo oboe, 'Maid of Mud', and an arrangement of Elgar's 'Salut d'amore' for oboe d'amore and piano. Rachel finished with the 'Cavatine' for oboe and piano by Coste and 'Danza Gaya' by Madeleine Dring. It was a lovely recital, showing off Rachel's beautiful tone.

'An Old Woman's Reflections' by Peig Sayers

22 October 2026

The Blasket Islands are three miles off Ireland's Dingle Peninsula. Until their evacuation just after the Second World War, the lives of the 150 or so Blasket Islanders had remained unchanged for centuries. A rich oral tradition of storytelling, poetry and folktales kept alive the legends and history of the islands. In the 1960s Oxford University Press published seven Blasket Island books, containing memoirs and reminiscences, evoking a way of life which has now vanished. I am grateful to Tom Doyle for giving me a copy of one of those seven books: 'An Old Woman's Reflections: The Life of a Blasket Island Storyteller' by Peig Sayers (first published in 1962). Peig Sayers (1873 - 1958), known as 'the Queen of Gaelic storytellers', was born on the mainland but made her home on the Great Blasket when she married an islandman. The book contains a series of her reminiscences, written down by her son (and translated and edited in 1939). It's a fascinating insight into the Gaelic oral tradition and a revealing historical snapshot of rural island life in this particular remote corner of Ireland during the first three decades of the 20th century. It is clear from Peig's stories that the day-to-day life of the islanders probably hadn't changed much for centuries, but occasionally you can see glimpses of the modern world intruding. A man comes to the village from Mexico and, remarkably, turns out to be a Gaelic speaker. Peig is given a ride in a motor car. News reaches Great Blasket of the 1916 revolution in Dublin. But most of Peig's stories are of disputes, love triangles, fights and boats lost at sea. 'An Old Woman's Reflections' is authentic primary source history, told in the words of someone who was there. These tales don't always have a conventional narrative arc but they tell you so much more about the everyday lives of the people in that place at that time.

'Macbeth' by William Shakespeare

21 October 2026

Over the past few years we've seen four productions by the excellent OVO Theatre Company in Saint Albans, all performed in the open-air Roman theatre of Verulamium. ('The Merry Wives of Windsor', reviewed here in September 2020; 'The Importance of Being Earnest', reviewed here in July 2022; 'Much Ado About Nothing', reviewed here in July 2023; and 'Sense and Sensibility', reviewed here in 2024.) On Tuesday we saw an indoor OVO production for the first time. The Barn is a beautiful 17th-century Grade II listed threshing barn in Verulamium Park in Saint Albans, which has been temporarily converted into an atmospheric 120-seat live performance space by OVO. The doors opened for the first time last week, launching an autumn season of site-specific productions during the 'work-in-progress phase', ahead of the full permanent conversion of The Barn in 2027. We were one of the first audiences to see the inside of this magnificent building. We were there to see a production of 'Macbeth' directed by OVO Theatre founder and artistic director Adam Nichols. This was a powerful, muscular performance, made more impactful by the audience, on three sides of the circular wooden stage, being so close to the action. The actors felt exaggeratedly large in this intimate space, and the violence, guilt, and grief of the play felt more visceral. Ludovig Hughes was great as Macbeth, embodying his physical and mental transformation through the play - but all of the large cast were impressive. The audience seating in the temporary auditorium didn't provide great sightlines and we were unable to see much of the action when characters were sitting or lying on the stage. But it was great to be present at the inauguration of this new theatrical space in St Albans and I'll looking forward to seeing what the full transformation of the building will bring next year.