I am a very lucky girl to have so many talented friends. I have friends from whom I can pump information about the law (in Scotland), classical music, opera, dance, ballet, horticulture, interior design, museum design, industrial construction, diving and deeeeeep diving, cakes, the provision of water for an entire country (funny I never tend to ask her many questions), the internet and most things tech, advertising (same person and an impressive force to reckon with), print and design, national tourism, e-bay, the property market,  internal corporate communications, international project and/or event management, sales, life and executive coaching, knitting – oh the list is endless.

My friend Wendi is a classical musician specialising in baroque viola although my operatic friend Susan always insists that Wendi’s main instrument is her voice and she should ditch the wood for her own box. I digress. Wendi is a mine of information. It is thanks to her that I can sing along to Mozart’s Requiem and know the difference between an opera and an operetta. She once told me about a composer called Schoenberg and atonality in music. I didn’t like either and this leads me to my complaint to Hodder and Stoughton.

Hodder and Stoughton are the people responsible for the audio versions of the works of Stephen King. I am currently listening to Insomnia read by Eli Wallach. It is absolutely brilliant. Except. For. The utterly crap. Atonality. of the. Supposed Musical INterlude. Pieces. by Eve Beglarian. who is a. Composer. and the. Producer of. this particular. Audiobook. Her musical overlay’s have completely ruined the audio experience. Have you ever noticed when watching TV that the music is always louder that the dialogue? Well in her role as producer, Eve has managed to eff the impressive combined and individual talents of both Stephen and Eli with a SUPER LOUD overlay of her pointless music which is not only redundant and needless to the proceedings, but well, let me tell the truth and shame the angels; it’s shit. It more than ruins the experience and if it wasn’t  Stephen King I would put the CD straight in the bin. Talk about riding on someone else’s coat tails.

I always go to bed listening to something; usually an audiobook, Agatha Christie, Alistair Cooke, Harry Potter in the car; and I just found a recording of Virgina Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway on cassette. I now need to find someone with a cassette player. I find I can’t sleep without the sound of voice and when desperate, I listen to World Service and the Shipping Forecast. Only BBC Radio 4 can make a half hour programme about the history of the photocopier gripping. If you are not already a 4 fan – get with the programme; it IS radio.