I Bought a Hall

I first thought of writing this book when I bought Tixover Hall in the County of Rutland in May 1968. Whilst dining with my wife Pamela and my four daughters on our first Saturday evening in our new and beautiful surroundings, I suddenly felt so proud that I was prompted to announce that one day I would write a book to commemorate this important achievement in our lives. Little did I then know what the future had in store.

From renting council properties in Corby, to buying three cottages in the country, and then a lovely period property in the middle of Stamford, we finally reached our pinnacle, so to speak, with the purchase of Tixover Hall – and all this coinciding with my move from teaching to conducting.

From time to time Pamela would remind me that the book was still waiting to be written, and later after Pamela’s death, my present wife Christine, humorously made it a condition of her coming to live in France in 1998.  In this diary the reader is invited to share my interests, which apart from music, forming an orchestra and my conducting career, include sailing, flying, antiquarian horology,  philosophy, cars and more recently cosmology. Now finally in 2021 it has been written.

Music on this website: Butterworth – The Banks of Green Willow, English Sinfonia conducted by Neville Dilkes.  (If the music doesn’t play automatically for you, please use the audio player in the footer below).