December 23, 2018
I have become increasingly tired and irritated at hearing people utter the phrase “That’s what Christmas is all about” when referring to a particularly well-cooked turkey or an unfeasibly large and discounted TV. What on earth has happened to us? It feels harder and harder to find a way through the cynical exterior to reach […]
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December 16, 2018
Listening to “Only Artists” on R4 this week Howard Goodall is describing the importance of breaking free from the “muscle memory” created through composing on the piano. Once your hands know where to go they tend to gravitate back there every time. It made so much sense when I thought about my own songwriting. Why […]
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December 9, 2018
During a phone call with the mother of a prospective client I ask her why, if he needs help, her adult son isn’t calling me himself? No more than half an hour after the conversation I received an angry email from her complaining that I had made her feel that she was the one with […]
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December 2, 2018
Trying to spruce up the elderberry vodka which has been maturing nicely in the shadows at the back of a kitchen cupboard I turn to a bottle of elderberry cordial made in the distant memory of late spring. Popping the stopper there is a very loud bang and the ceramic bottle top hurtles into the […]
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November 25, 2018
It’s “Stir-up Sunday” the day when we traditionally make the cakes and puddings, allowing them a few precious weeks to mature in the darkness of a cupboard in time for the Christmas festival. Most people, when asked why we call it “Stir-up Sunday”, would make the assumption that it’s a reference to the mixing and […]
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