Life is like a road with many turnings and my musical interests have been many and varied.
It started way back as a child when I loved the weekly “Singing Together” programme broadcast on the radio for schools. At secondary school, our music teacher was inspirational, and talented enough to play every instrument in the school orchestra. I longed to emulate him. I began as hundreds of others have done by playing the recorder and moved on to the violin. My parents? Tolerant or deaf I would think. I eventually became part of the youth orchestra and finally became the leader… more about my age than ability.
I began to play an accordion because my dear old Dad thought it was a super instrument and you could always earn a bob or two in a dance band. At the time I just wanted to make music so I started to learn on a small 48 bass one and soon moved to a much larger one, which was almost as big as me… being rather a small child.
However this was not ‘cool’ as in the 60s everyone played the guitar and what teenager wants to be different than their peers. If only my dad had known that that it was the best tool I ever had for teaching young children to enjoy singing.
All this led to Chester Teachers’ Training College to study music and drama as part of my teaching course. It was here that I took up the piano. I was catching up with my secondary teacher.
It was in retirement that I joined High Wycombe and district U3A. Somehow my musical skills were discovered. A friend approached me one day saying that she knew that I played the guitar but did I play the ukulele?
Did I? Well no, but I remembered a ukulele which I had been bought as a kind of joke Christmas present a couple of years earlier. I was in business. We went to listen to an established group in Marlow to see what we thought. First impressions? It was in a pub, so bring it on. In the back room were around 40 players. We sat down to listen when someone put a ukulele in my hand, I managed a few chords and I realised that I was hooked.
So lets start a group up in the U3A we decided. We hoped that we could find a teacher but no one came forward so without more ado I was coerced into leading the group.
We have been going around 6 months now and the group is growing from an initial start of around 12 to over 20. We have a percussion section too, and that is growing well.
We meet once a month to play and we had our first ‘gig’ at our Christmas U3A coffee morning. It was great fun and seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces was fantastic. Its not a difficult instrument to get the basics going but it is really good fun to play together. I am still learning and keeping enough steps ahead of the group to be able to pass on the skills. My philosophy is that you cannot be sad when you are singing a cheery song and playing a ukulele. I love it. So we just keep strumming.
(published Simon and Schuster UK 2013). It should have been a good read (interesting storyline about an English nurse working for the resistance in Crete during WW2) but there were some irritating anomalies and frequent failures to capitalise on opportunities for dramatic tension. I was left feeling dissatisfied, though I did learn some fascinating facts about Crete and WW2.
(published Sceptre 2013) and keenly anticipated reading it. But I wasn’t completely convinced by her portrayal of the main character and I found the plot unrealistic in places. However, it is well written; her use of language appealed to me, as did the pace of the book, and there are some excellent descriptive passages. I think I will try another of her books. One more to add to my list.
(published Fourth Estate 2002). This was in fact a re-read for me, but I relished the opportunity to have a fresh look at a book which has long been on my Top Ten List. It’s based on the true story of a Derbyshire village coping with an outbreak of plague in the seventeenth century and is one of those books which is almost unbearable to read, and yet equally you can hardly bear to put it down.
(published Fourth Estate 2014) and I wasn’t disappointed. Each individual story is a compelling read and all are powerful, harrowing, disturbing and haunting. In fact they made me question why I read. Is it for pleasure and relaxation? To learn? To be challenged? Or to appreciate the skill of the writer? In the case of this book, I think it is the latter two. And that is a tribute to Hilary Mantel who is a supremely good writer.
(published Pan Books 2014) Who doesn’t love Mary Berry and the Bake Off programmes? I’m a big fan, and this lighthearted tale of a harassed mother teaching herself with Mary Berry’s help to bake appealed to me. In fact I could have done with a bit more of the baking and a bit less of the rest of the story. It isn’t a book that will stick in my mind for years to come, but it is an enjoyable and relaxing read and I definitely recommend it if that’s the sort of book you’re looking for.
