My old college has picked up on my book having been included in The Independent’s ‘Pick of 2010′ last Friday. Read the article on the college website, where you can also find some fab photos of the chapel and so on.

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The lake in Richmond Park had frozen over for the first time this winter. People were breaking off pieces of ice from the shore line or picking up stones from the paths, and skimming them over the frozen surface of the water.
To my amazement, each stone played the same musical note as it bounced, the [...]

To a viol masterclass given by the eiminent Catalan viol player Jordi Savall at the Royal College of Music. As always happens when I listen to ‘early music’, it took me a little while to tune in to the quiet sound level favoured by the players. It’s so different from the strong, projected sound used [...]

Despite the cold weather, there are still red roses blooming in the garden. But today when I looked out, there was frost on their petals. Somehow the sight of frost on the roses was poignant.

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Here’s something I hadn’t seen before: an asymmetrical viola. Its owner, Rivka Golani, showed it to us when Bob interviewed her for Putney Music society this week.
Rivka explained that the maker of the viola, Otto Erdesz, believed that the unusual cut-out on the treble side of the viola (that’s the left-hand side as we look [...]