Which is the front of a church? At the weekend we had a disagreement about it. We were talking about somewhere we’d been on holiday. I referred to a certain road as ‘the one that goes past the back of the church’. Bob’s response puzzled me. From his description, he was clearly visualising the road [...]

Tune in to Radio 4′s ‘Today’ programme at 8.35am this morning, Tuesday 29 January, when I’ll be taking part in a short discussion about coughing in concerts. We’ll be discussing the research of Professor Andreas Wagener, who believes that coughing in concerts is both ‘excessive’ and ‘non-random’. Apparently people cough more in concerts than they [...]

The snow is causing all sorts of disruption. On Friday I went into town to meet someone who didn’t arrive because his flight from Austria was cancelled. On Saturday morning, I was supposed to be coaching a young German group, but their violinist was stuck in Germany because of the snow. They kept me informed [...]

Yesterday I heard on the news that a Liverpool University study had shown the power of literature to boost brain activity. ‘Classic texts’ such as Shakespeare and Wordsworth appear to catch the reader’s attention more than ordinary texts, triggering heightened awareness and periods of self-reflection which last longer than the moment of reading. I particularly [...]

A very happy new year to my readers! Here I am on New Year’s Day, eating home-made Christmas cake on an outing to Richmond Park, and enjoying a rare and sudden burst of sunshine.