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I’m in the throes of research for my second book, which will be a novel.

This was published by Macmillan in 1992, and comprises the edited personal papers of the musician R. J. S. Stevens. In himself he is relatively obscure, but he provides a more-or-less ordinary musician’s perspective on life in Georgian London.

Stevens enjoyed the patronage of Lord Thurlow, who was rumoured to have become Lord Chancellor as a result of strongly advising George III that he was right to tax the colonists in North America. It’s ironic that Stevens’ Recollections are the one source to identify the author of the tune which was to become The Star-spangled Banner as John Stafford Smith.

Stevens was present for the first London performance of Beethoven’s “Sinfonia Eroica (with funeral march” and imply notes “...Beethoven’s Sinfonia... 50 minutes”. But he did go to Haydn’s and Playel’s concerts in the 1790s, and follow the latest new music arriving from Europe. His own compositions are mostly of vocal music, and his glees are particularly interesting.

Perhaps a fairer measure of his real position is the story of his marriage. In an age when the music profession gave people access to the higher echelons of society, but didn’t enable them to cross the social divide, he rubbed shoulders with the Prince of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor, but endured a 22-year courtship (apparently) because his future wife’s family were not willing for the eldest daughter to marry the music teacher.

Hilliard Ensemble’s Morimur comes to UK
(Early Music Today, August/September 2003)

Postcard from London
(Goldberg, Issue 23 June/July 2003)

Mystery sonatas at St John’s Smith Square
(Early Music Today, June/July 2003)

First electic viols available commercially
(Early Music Today, April/May 2003)

Plug and play (the electric viola da gamba)
(Classical Music, 18 January 2003)

Handel as Orpheus (review of book by Ellen Harris)
Gay Times June 2002

Stringing along (article on the Toccata & Fugue in D minor of J. S. Bach)
Musical Times Autumn 2000

Plus 3000–6000 words each month for Early Music News on a variety of topics including reviews, news, features and previews.

Farming and the future of the countryside
Reform, October 2002

Courage to Love (review of book by Geoffrey Duncan)
Gay Times September 2002

A composer’s Journey
Windows Easter 2002

The future of food and farming in the countryside
EECN Update Spring 2002

Social Capital
Reform March 2002

Finding God in a place of darkness: World AIDS day and Advent
Reform December 2001

Social Capital, past present and future
EECN Update Autumn 2001

The Journey is my home (review of book by Lavinia Byrne)
Reform July/August 2001

Finding God through Music
Windows, Easter 2001

Soapbox
Eastwords (URC Eastern Synod newsletter) Autumn 1999

Some thoughts on the use of scripture
Reform July/August 1996 One of two articles in this issue of Reform looking at biblical authority in the contect of the United Reformed Church’s debates on human sexuality. The other article — from the opposite perspective — was by David Hilborn, then minister at the City Temple in London.