It’s Sunday morning, and I’m sitting in the Feathers Hotel in Ludlow, bags half-packed, getting ready to chair the last of three panel discussions I’ve been overseeing here at the Ludlow English Song Weekend. The weekend’s programme, masterfully constructed by Iain Burnside, has been an exploration of Ireland – and
This weekend, I’ve been soaking up the beautiful sights and sounds of the Ludlow English Song Weekend. This is a real celebration of music setting English-language texts, with a strong emphasis on Anglo-American connections this year, including a fantastic concert last night of Whitman settings by a huge range of
For the past few weeks, in preparation for next weekend’s extravaganza of English Song in beautiful Ludlow, I’ve been reading about, and listening to, a great deal of British music… and trying to determine what, exactly, makes it British. From Peter Ackroyd’s Albion to Raymond Williams’s sensational The Country and
A few years ago, a friend of mine told me about a sort of book challenge in which she was taking part. It was simple enough: the idea was to read an average of a book a week for the entire year, so that you could make your way through
