Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by without consideration. Izaak Walton If you can’t be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped Izaak…
Continue reading →Dear Friends, after many years of threatening to write a book and being teased about the fact that I had not yet done so, I’m pleased to announce the publication of Playing the Horn: Technique and Beyond. With a goal…
Continue reading →Over the last – maybe – nine months, although until now not expressed on the page, many thoughts have popped into my head; sometimes of the armchair amateur philosophical kind, sometimes just memories from soon after the cradle onwards. It…
Continue reading →There used to be a chap in the BBC’s brain trust, Professor Joad, who said, as an opening to every answer he gave, ‘It all depends what you mean by …’ When I was writing something a few years ago,…
Continue reading →It is sometimes said that some people seem to waltz through life without an apparent care in the world. Others march through, often not always minding where they tread. On an immediately mundane note, I tried one evening to do…
Continue reading →One aspect of getting on a bit and having time to think has led me, inevitably, to look back and review carefully selected areas of my life. Many good friends are involved. For example, Tony Tunstall started at the Royal…
Continue reading →“Let’s go to the seaside!” What a nice uncomplicated request from the children. And another, “It’s your birthday on Saturday; we’ll have a party for a few of your friends”. Great fun. For the children, the first suggestion instantly conjures…
Continue reading →While it always continued its vital contribution on the hunting field, outside this environment the horn gradually learned to wipe its boots carefully, and come into further prominence at Aprês Chasse gatherings in the wealthy landowners’ drawing rooms. It was only a…
Continue reading →To begin with – a few disclaimers; I speak as a teacher who, try as he might, has not himself always adhered to all the advice that he will give in the following pages: it is better to be honest….
Continue reading →It is an understandable trait of human nature that our priorities do not always allow us to show much more than a cursory interest in the details of a situation that seems to work satisfactorily on its own. In our…
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