In the late 1990s, I and a considerable number of my friends and peers were hooked on Joss Whedon’s smart, funny, and emotionally complex TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In a time prior to the arrival of sparkly Edward Cullen, the vampires of the Buffyverse were selfish, scheming, sometimes
Come on, admit it: you watched it too, didn’t you? It wasn’t just me sitting slack-jawed with amazement at Germany’s extraordinary head creation. A considerable number of us were in front of TV screens with friends and family, gesticulating frantically with our wine glasses and jotting down our own unique
Last night, as I flopped onto the sofa after a day of essay marking and admin, I found myself glancing briefly between two shining display screens. One was the TV, where I’d inadvertently switched on BBC4 just at the point that we were being introduced to the semi-finalists of this
In 2004, full of trepidation that it wasn’t going to be good enough, I submitted my first paid programme note job to the staff of Lakeside Arts, Nottingham. I was a Masters student at the university there, and they needed someone to write about some of the Bartók string quartets
Have you ever read Penelope Fitzgerald’s wonderful, funny, deeply moving novel The Bookshop? If you haven’t, you really should – set at the end of the 1950s, it traces the attempts of the brave Florence Green to set up a shop in the midst of local objections and ‘alternative solutions’
For centuries, and for a host of different reasons, it has been traditional practice in many countries for a new bride to be carried over the threshold of her new home by her husband. Whether a symbol of ownership, avoiding bad spirits, or the public marking of a new life
A few weeks ago, some friends of mine travelled abroad for a European city break. When they returned and we’re telling me what they’d got up to, they giggled at the memory of one evening, spent sitting in a restaurant and having a fine meal and a lively conversation. Apparently
From 1998 until 2012, I had the great privilege and pleasure of being involved with a music summer school for amateur pianists, singers, conductors and composers. I arrived in that first year a terrified fifteen-year-old, convinced everyone on the Young Pianists course would be better than me and not knowing
In June 2013, on a clear summer’s evening, I staggered out of the London Coliseum and made my way to the Hungerford Bridge. Leaning over the railings, I stared out at the water, took deep breaths, and tried to sort myself out before heading back to Waterloo on my way
The sun is shining, the blossom is out… and as the Easter holidays pitch into view, I have just finished my script for another ‘Building a Library’ on Radio 3, which I’ll be recording in a couple of weeks. For those who heard my slot last year (or indeed anyone
