'How the Other Half Loves' by Alan Ayckbourn

3 September 2026

On Wednesday we were at the Old Vic in London to see Phillip Breen's new production of 'How the Other Half Loves' by Alan Ayckbourn. It was fascinating to see the Old Vic auditorium reconfigured for this 'in the round' production - which is how the play was originally staged 57 years ago. And it was a wonderful show with an excellent cast (led by Roger Allam) and brilliant comic timing, which was truly hilarious. 'How the Other Half Loves' now feels like typical Ayckbourn, with its single domestic setting, a seemingly simple comedy of manners that builds into a cleverly constructed farce of words (rather than of slapstick), playing with theatrical conventions in complex ways while still being perfectly clear and easy to follow. But this was an early Ayckbourn play that helped to establish that model, and it was notable that it lacked the darker turns of many of his later works. Alan Ayckbourn has now written more than 90 plays  and this is the 10th I have reviewed here. (We previously saw ‘Constant Companions’ his 89th play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2023 - reviewed here in September 2023). 'How the Other Half Loves' famously shows two households simultaneously existing in the same hybrid living room, leading to the tour-de-force 'dinner party from hell' scene which is perfectly executed in the Old Vic production. Despite dealing with the pain and sadness of infidelity, this is an incredibly funny feelgood show. 

Edinburgh Festivals 2026

2 September 2026

We had a wonderful visit to Edinburgh last week, seeing 20 shows in four and a half days. On the Edinburgh International Festival we loved 'The Golden Age of Hollywood' - John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London at the Usher Hall playing music from classic MGM musicals of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Most of the original sheet music from this period was lost but Wilson has meticulously recreated the arrangements and it was fantastic to hear them live. We were also lucky to see the brilliant Pavel Haas Quartet playing string quartets by Martinů, Korngold and Dvořák at the Queen's Hall. On the Edinburgh Fringe we saw lots of amazing fringe theatre. Our favourites included 'Helen Bradley: Painter and Storyteller' - a one-woman show with Kara Wilson playing the Edwardian painter from Oldham telling us the story of her life while we watched her painting a picture in the style of Helen Bradley. 'Sublimation' was another great solo performance - written and acted by Frank Murdocco - about a one-man business struggling to survive in contemporary New York when offered a Faustian bargain that would solve his financial crisis while compromising his political and moral principles. We enjoyed EXIT - a strange but compelling piece of physical theatre by the Belgian company Circumstances, which is essentially four men walking through doors for an hour. This wordless show is funny, inventive and incredibly impressive, blending circus skills, dance and gymnastics. 'Supposing' - a new play by Zinnie Harris at the Traverse Theatre starring Nicole Cooper and Richard Conlon - was a stunning piece of small-scale theatre. After falling into a hole in the street outside the local theatre, Sally becomes convinced she has been cursed and begins to hear a Greek chorus in her head. She appears to be living a series of Greek tragedies - to the bemusement and increasing concern of her husband. It's a funny, intriguing and disturbing play, brilliantly acted. But I think my favourite fringe show this year was 'The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much' by the physical theatre company Voloz Collective - a Hitchcockian noir spoof set in 1960s New York involving spies, terrorists, assassinations and political plots. Four actors conjure up a comic book world with the minimum of props and the maximum use of their bodies. It's clever, fast-moving and hilarious.

'Actually, I'm a Murderer' by Terry Deary

23 August 2026

Terry Deary is best known for the Horrible Histories series. His first novel for adults, 'Actually, I'm a Murderer' (which I've just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Adam Stevens, Anna Gilthorpe and Sam Stafford) has a similarly irreverent tone, but a little more sex and violence. It is set in Sunderland in 1973 and is a murder mystery thriller narrated in rotation by three of the people involved. There are some nice twists, surprises and coincidences, with revelations appearing when the same scene is described from the point of view of a different protagonist. The plot becomes a cleverly constructed farce and never takes itself too seriously. It's a light but very enjoyable tale and looks set to be the first in a series of linked novels.

'The Oresteia' by Simon Stone, after Aeschylus & Others

21 August 2026

On Thursday we were at the Bridge Theatre in London to see a new production of 'The Oresteia', written and directed by Simon Stone "After Aeschylus & Others". 'The Oresteia' by Aeschylus is the only surviving ancient Greek trilogy of three connected plays. Recounting the murder of King Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra in revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia - followed, in turn, by their son Orestes avenging the death of his father by executing Clytemnestra and her lover. (According to Professor Edith Hall, writing in the Theatre Programme, the Oresteia was in fact a tetralogy. The fourth play, now lost to us, was a rumbustious satyr drama, with the chorus changing into hairy body suits with animal hooves.) The Australian writer and director Simon Stone comes to 'The Oresteia' having developed a reputation for re-workings of classics, from 'Medea' and 'Phaedra' to Ibsen's 'Wild Duck' and 'The Lady from the Sea'. We saw his version of Lorca's 'Yerma', starring Billy Piper, in 2017 (reviewed here in September 2017), in a modern setting in which the characters were encased in an enormous glass box that filled the stage. Stone's technique involves building the script through rehearsals, drawing inspiration from his cast's work. The first thing that strikes you about the Oresteia is the incredible set by Lizzie Clachan - an almost life-size two-storey house on a massive revolving stage, allowing the audience to peer through floor-to-ceiling windows into a giant doll's house, revealing the trauma going on in Agamemnon's family. As with the glass box from 'Yerma' (also designed by Lizzie Clachan), the glass windows of the house mean we can only hear the actors through their microphones: there is one scene with a character throwing boxes around a bedroom where we can hear what he is saying but the colliding props are eerily silent to us. Unfortunately some of the witty crosstalk in the early scenes is hard to follow because the detail of the characters speaking over each other is not distinct enough through the microphones. Stone uses the modern day setting to skip backwards and forwards through the tragic events spanning 2016 to 2026, gradually piecing together the story of murder and revenge. This creates a gripping narrative structure for the drama and makes much better use of the principal actors than having them play no further part after their murders. David Morrissey plays Christopher ('Agamemnon') and Mary Louise-Parker his wife Montie ('Clytemnestra') with Tom Glyn-Carney as their son Augie ('Orestes') and Rosie Sheehy as their daughter Alice ('Electra'). We last saw Sheehy stealing the show in 'The Brightening Air' by Conor McPherson at the Old Vic (reviewed here in May 2025). It's a spectacular and intriguing production that teeters between angst-ridden tragedy, black comedy and grand guignol, but I'm not sure it entirely works. The test of any modern reworking of Greek tragedy should be whether, by the end, we believe that these events would have driven these modern characters to commit the heinous acts they do. When we saw Mike Bartlett's new version of 'Medea' at Watford Palace Theatre in 2012 (reviewed here in November 2012), he did succeed in making us believe that Rachael Sterling's Medea would have murdered her children. But while Simon Stone's 'Oresteia' definitely showed the extreme emotional strain of each of the protagonists, I wasn't totally convinced that in its modern setting this would have led to the slaughter we witnessed. And by abandoning the chronological sequence of events of the three original plays, there's really no reason to present it in three acts with two intervals: it felt a little indulgent at three and a half hours long. Nevertheless, it's a very well-acted, inventive and visually stunning production. 

'He Should Have Died Hereafter' and 'An English Murder' by Cyril Hare

17 August 2026

Having enjoyed my first Cyril Hare detective novel, 'When the Wind Blows' (reviewed here in July 2026), I have now devoured two more of his books. 'He Should Have Died Hereafter', published in 1958, again features the retired lawyer Francis Pettigrew (whose wife played in the amateur orchestra in 'When the Wind Blows' and who is the protagonist of a series of five murder mysteries by Cyril Hare). In 'He Should Have Died Hereafter' Pettigrew joins forces with the retired Inspector Mallet (who himself appears in seven Hare novels) to solve a mysterious death on Exmoor. 'An English Murder' published in 1951 (based on a 1948 radio play by Cyril Hare, 'Murder at Warbeck Hall') is a quintessential country house murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, with guests gathered for a family Christmas and the house cut off from the rest of the world by snow. It feels like it comes from a previous era with its cast of aristocrats and a very polite butler, but is actually set during the early years of the post-war Labour government. I don't know whether the three books I've read are a representative sample of the works of Cyril Hare but they certainly have some common recurring themes to their plots. Nevertheless, all three have been very readable, funny and clever, while revealing some interesting social history details.

'Absolutely on Music' by Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa

13 August 2026

I first discovered the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami through David Mitchell, whose novel 'number9dream' (a favourite of mine) was heavily influenced by Murakami's 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'. Murakami novels are usually set in contemporary real-world Japan, into which magical realism starts to intrude. In my reviews here I have often noted Murakami's references to Western classical music (for example in my favourite Murakami novel 'Kafka on the Shore', reviewed here in October 2006). In ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ (reviewed here in September 2017) the characters discuss the merits of various different recordings of the ‘Brandenburg Concertos’. In ‘1Q84’ (reviewed here in April 2012) Murakami provides expert analysis of the music of Janáček. And in 'Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage' (reviewed here in September 2014) a discussion of a recording of Franz Liszt’s 'Le Mal du Pays' by the Russian pianist Lazar Berman led to copies of Berman's CD becoming sold out almost immediately after the publication of Murakami’s novel. I am very grateful to Adriana Marques for giving me a copy of 'Absolutely on Music' - a book of conversations that took place in 2010 and 2011 between Haruki Murakami and the eminent Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa. The book is mostly an edited transcript of the conversations, with a few added notes by Murakami, and I loved it. While clearly knowledgeable about classical music, Murakami does not play an instrument. So my experience of playing in orchestras gave me a level of understanding somewhere between Murakami and Ozawa, making this book perfect for me. Their conversations start with Ozawa recollecting a 1962 performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1 by Glenn Gould with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic. Before the performance Bernstein turned to the audience and briefly announced that they were about to play the concerto according to Mr Gould's interpretation, with which he did not agree. This anecdote had me hooked from the start. And when Murakami and Ozawa started to listen to and compare six different recordings of Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto, and I realised that all six versions were available on Spotify so I could listen along (with Murakami helpfully providing timestamps for the particular passages they referred to) I knew I was really going to enjoy sitting in on their discussions. As well as concertos they talk about symphonies, operas, string quartets and more. Ozawa is particularly interesting on the job of a conductor and the enjoyment of score-reading. It was also a fascinating coincidence that the book refers to Ozawa conducting the premiere in 1983 of Messiaen's opera 'Saint Francois d'Assise', which was formed one section of the book 'Four Last Songs' by Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon that I read in July (reviewed here in July 2026). I might have been fortunate to be the perfect audience for 'Absolutely on Music' but I really enjoyed it and it has led me on to listening to and playing many of the pieces they discussed.

'George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones: The Mad King' adapted by Duncan Macmillan

11 August 2026

Arriving at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on Monday to see the first stage show based on George R. R. Martin's 'Game of Thrones' novels felt like proper event theatre. Firstly, we all had to have 'Game of Thrones' branded stickers placed over the cameras of our smartphones to emphasise the strict no filming or photography rule. Secondly, the audience weren't allowed into the auditorium until a few minutes before the start of the play. And thirdly, the inside of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre has been completely transformed for this production, with much of the seating moved from its normal position, to allow the usual thrust stage to be narrowed and extended into a cruciform platform stretching the full length and width of the auditorium. With additional seating placed on three levels on what is usually one end of the stage, the theatre has become a spectacular immersive space for a performance in the round. Unfortunately, this meant that the seats we had chosen, which were marked as having a restricted view, were not the RST's usual 'restricted view', requiring you to peer slightly around a pillar, but were completely restricted by a newly inserted wall that prevented us seeing anything happening at one end of the stage. There were three moments during the play where it was hard to follow important plot developments because we genuinely had no idea who was speaking. Duncan Macmillan's play, 'Game of Thrones: The Mad King', is a prequel to 'A Game of Thrones' - the book that formed the start of the HBO TV series. The play concerns the final days of the reign of Aerys II Targaryen - the Mad King of the title. The plot draws on references in several George R. R. Martin books to events in this period and features the younger versions of several characters familiar to audiences of the TV series. The play works as a standalone story but I think it would be incredibly hard to follow if you weren't familiar with the books or the TV series. I'm glad we had re-familiarised ourselves with the world of Westeros by reading a brief synopsis before seeing the play. Dominic Cook's Royal Shakespeare Company production is spectacular, boasting a cast of 36 and lasting nearly four hours. it's interesting that it uses very little modern technology. Like 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' (reviewed here in August 2025), it relies more on old-fashioned stagecraft. In particular the puppetry, by Nick Barnes, creates amazing life-size metallic horses, similar to those pioneered by 'War Horse' (reviewed here in October 2015). Chloe Lamford's set features two 'wow' moments - a brilliant realisation of a sacred heart tree in the godswood, with the trunk rising from beneath the stage to mesh with the branches being lowered from above: and the thrilling emergence from under the stage of the infamous Iron Throne. George R. R. Martin's stories have always had quite a Shakespearean feel to them and it's interesting to see the Royal Shakespeare Company taking on this modern giant of fantasy fiction. So it was funny that like some of the Shakespeare history plays, an already complicated plot became additionally confusing with the introduction, late in the play, of characters who hadn't appeared until that point but seemed necessary to link this prequel to the familiar stories that follow. The whole initial run of the play is completely sold out and there was a packed, enthusiastic audience on Monday evening. It's an entertaining and satisfying experience -not quite Shakespeare, but very enjoyable.

'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard

10 August 2026

I've always enjoyed the plays of Tom Stoppard - from 'The Real Inspector Hound', 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead', 'The Real Thing', 'Travesties' and 'Jumpers' to 'The Hard Problem' (reviewed here in April 2015) and ‘Leopoldstadt’ (reviewed here in February 2022). I was even lucky enough to see Stoppard giving a pre-show talk before a performance of ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’ at the National Theatre in 2009 (reviewed here in February 2009). When Tom Stoppard died in November 2025, reading the obituaries and tributes I was reminded that I had never seen the play that has often been described as his best work. I remember reading the reviews of the original production of 'Arcadia' at the National Theatre in 1993 but I didn't manage to get to see it. I did, though, really enjoy the audio recording of the play by that original cast (including Rufus Sewell, Felicity Kendal, Bill Nighy and Emma Fielding) which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1993. On Saturday I finally got to see 'Arcadia' on stage, at the Duke of York's Theatre (soon to be renamed the Tom Stoppard Theatre) in London's West End. Carrie Cracknell's production opened at the Old Vic in January this year and transferred to the West End in June. The production is presented in the round and we decided to get seats on the stage, which gave us a wonderful close-up view of the actors: most of the time it felt like we were watching a studio production. 'Arcadia' is a brilliant play. Set in a grand country house in Derbyshire in two different times (1809 and 1993) it shows modern academics researching the early 19th century events at the house, which we also see directly. This is a canvas for Stoppard to explore a range of ideas and themes, including mathematics, iterative algorithms, chaos theory, academic methods, the picturesque and landscape gardening. This preponderance of topics helps to avoid the script becoming too didactic, as the pomposity of certain characters is constantly pricked by interruptions and digressions by their peers. It's also a very funny play, with an extensive cast who are initially confined to the scenes set in their own timeline but then begin to cross over with their counterparts from another age. It's a great cast: Oliver Chris channels Bill Nighy as the Tiggerish academic Bernard Nightingale, for whom Nikki Amuka-Bird's Hannah Jarvis is more than a match, and Angus Cooper's Valentine Coverly is a gentle, sympathetic referee between them. Yolanda Kettle is commanding as Lady Croom and Seamus Dillane as the tutor Septimus Hodge is witty, knowing and charmingly disreputable. But Isis Hainsworth steals the show as the teenage mathematical product Thomasina Coverly - a proto-Ada Lovelace. It was particularly interesting to see 'Arcadia' so soon after reading Ian McEwan's novel 'What We Can Know' (reviewed here in August 2026) which has a very similar structure - with academics trying to unearth the details of the events of a previous century through the discovery of written sources - and slightly misinterpreting them. And both plots revolve around the works of a poet. But Stoppard is much funnier.

'What We Can Know' by Ian McEwan

10 August 2026

Ian McEwan's 2024 novel 'What We Can Know' is an impressive achievement. A historian in the year 2119 is researching the work of the early 21st century poet Francis Blundy and, in particular, his legendary missing poem from 2014, 'A Corona for Vivien'. To frame this scholarly literary detective story, McEwan has constructed a detailed history of the next 100 years, complete with climate disasters, nuclear war and more. But what he is really exploring is the unreliability of historical written sources, control of one's own narrative and the making of myths. It's an incredibly clever novel which I think I enjoyed all the more because I hadn't heard anything about it before reading and had no idea where it was going.

'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.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

14 July 2026

Our traditional, season-ending, short, Sunday afternoon Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert for the Friends of the Orchestra, is always a lovely way to mark the start of the summer. It's also a great opportunity for the orchestra to play repertoire that wouldn't fit into one of our normal concerts. It's a chance for us, and our audience, to explore shorter pieces for a smaller orchestra. At this year's Friends' concert at Christchurch in Northampton on Sunday we played Schubert's 'Symphony No. 8' (the 'Unfinished Symphony'). I hadn't played this popular work for many years and had forgotten what a lovely piece it is. There is something very satisfying about playing a classical symphony that is so cleverly constructed and beautifully written but less technically challenging than some of the repertoire we usually play, providing the opportunity to play much more carefully and precisely. I would agree with our percussionist, Keith Crompton, who said to me after the concert that he thought the Schubert was the best the orchestra had played for a long time. Conductor John Gibbons drew a lovely, rich sound from the orchestra and kept the rhythms clear and steady. We continued our tradition of featuring the latest Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust soloists competition winners. Amy played the final section of the Glazunov 'Saxophone Concerto' very impressively. And Stan gave a stunning performance of the last two movements of the lovely 'Concertino for Trombone' by Ferdinand David. When Felix Mendelssohn was asked to compose a trombone concerto he declined due to time restraints but passed the task to the leader of his Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ferdinand David. The resulting Concertino was dedicated to the Gewandhaus trombonist Karl Traugott Queisser, who first performed it, with Mendelssohn conducting, in 1837. We also played the catchy 'Folk Song Suite' by Vaughan Williams and we finished the concert with the Rossini overture ‘The Thieving Magpie’ which featured excellent solos by Harriet Brown (oboe), Helen Taylor (flute), Rob Reid (clarinet), Sian Bunker (bassoon) and Ian Jones (horn). 

'Four Last Songs' by Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon

14 July 2026

I have written here several times (particularly in November 2010 and November 2024) about my long personal connection to the 'Four Last Songs' by Richard Strauss. I am grateful to Lindsey Jackson for remembering this and giving me a copy of Linda and Michael Hutcheon's 2015 book 'Four Last Songs' which explores aging and creativity by looking at the late works of four composers: Verdi, Strauss, Messiaen and Britten. The Hutcheons are academics at the University of Toronto (a literary theorist and a physician). As they both entered their sixties they became increasingly interested in continuing creativity in older age, and their book felt a very timely read for me as I started my retirement. By examining the later lives of the four composers, they look at whether their last compositions try to sum up their lives and their achievements or to point forward through an unexpected change in style. Verdi, famous for his very successful tragic operas, deliberately chose to end his career by writing a comic opera, 'Falstaff', to send a message to other Italian composers warning against the increasing 'Germanism' of Italian opera. The late works of Richard Strauss, including the 'Four Last Songs', seem to reject his previous exploration of modernism and revert to 'being Strauss'. Messiaen decided to spend his last years writing his first opera - the incredibly ambitious 'Saint Francois d'Assise'. Britten's last opera 'Death in Venice' deals specifically with aging, creativity and death. The Hutcheons' short book is fascinating - fairly academic in tone but with plenty of background about the context of the composers' later years - and made me want to listen more attentively to their (and other composers') late works.   

'The Barbecue at No. 9' by Jennie Godfrey

9 July 2026

Having enjoyed Jennie Godfrey's debut novel 'The List of Suspicious Things', in which a young girl in West Yorkshire in the 1970s attempts to identify the Yorkshire Ripper (reviewed here in July 2025), I was intrigued to learn that her new book is set in 1985 on the day of the Live Aid concert - a period that could have been my Mastermind specialist subject. 'The Barbecue at No. 9', which I read as an unabridged audio book (narrated by Gemma Whelan, Josh Dylan, Raffey Cassidy and Stephen Mangan) uses Live Aid as a backdrop and timeline for a gathering of neighbours. The Gordon family have invited all the other inhabitants of Delmont Close - many of whom have never previously met - to a barbecue in their garden to celebrate the occasion of the charity concert. At first I found it difficult to take in the substantial cast of characters (particularly listening to the audio book where it is difficult to skip back to check the names and house numbers). But soon I realised that the four narrators represented the four principal characters whose stories were going to be explored in depth. As with 'The List of Suspicious Things', Jennie Godfrey's writing reminded me of the novels of Joanna Cannon (including ‘The Trouble with Goats and Sheep’, set in the long hot summer of 1976, reviewed here in January 2022). The alternating stories of multiple, otherwise unconnected, individuals united in a moment also reminded me of Liane Moriarty's novel 'Here One Moment' (reviewed here in January 2025). You can tell there are going to be some twists and revelations but it took me a while to work them out. 'The Barbecue at No. 9' is enjoyable, entertaining and satisfying and I'm pleased to report that the Live Aid references were obviously well-researched.