There’s a nice review of my new book, Sleeping in Temples, in the Jan/Feb issue of International Piano magazine. I know from my own attempts that it isn’t always easy to track down this interesting magazine, so I thought I’d take the chance to reproduce an excerpt here: ‘Unlike other pianists, whose blogs can too often […]

Readers who followed my enthusiastic recommendation of ‘The Real Charlotte’ may be interested in another recommendation from the same period. I’ve just finished reading ‘Maurice Guest’, published in 1908 by Henry Handel Richardson, the pseudonym of Ethel Richardson, an Australian novelist. It’s a book I’ve been trying to find for ages, because from time to time […]

Lots of people have written to me today about coughing. Why? Because of a BBC News report about violinist Kyung-Wha Chung’s comeback recital at the Festival Hall in London. She was disturbed by a child coughing in the audience, and remonstrated with the parents. Her response to the coughing divided the audience. Some were shocked or […]

My book ‘Sleeping in Temples’ has been named as one of the ‘Books of the Year’ by Classical Music magazine.  In November it was their ‘Editor’s Choice’ with a five-star review, and now in December it has been upgraded to one of the ten ‘books of the year’. What a fabulous Christmas present! The November review of my book […]

Three more mentions of my new book have appeared this weekend: Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker and eminent music blogger, includes it in his ‘Recommendations‘. Frances Wilson reviews it in her Cross-Eyed Pianist blog: ‘This absorbing and insightful book will delight and inspire musicians and music-lovers’. And broadcaster Sheena MacDonald chooses it […]