Mrs Steve and I (40 years wed) have very limited shared tastes in music. When we're in the car we'll both enjoy a bit of Dolores/Dolly/Linda, maybe a bit of Ron Kavana or Bothy Band, a touch of Carly Simon or whatever's on Classic FM as long as it's not bloody Elgar's Cello Concerto for the fifth time in a week. Maybe a bit of Pastoral Symphony or Mendelssohn's Italian, a Mozart piano concerto or some Tchaikovsky ballet music. Gershwin, fantastic. Even a bit of Glen Miller. Works well enough and passes the time.

But I also love a very wide range of classical, including a ton of Stravinsky, Bernstein, Ravel, late Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, and Mozart masses and operas, and I'll give anything a whirl really. If I stick any of that stuff on when we're forced to be together, I might get a touch of tight-lipped silence. The game's not worth the candle. She can't stand anything like a string quartet or anything played on an organ or harpsichord. I'm a damn sight better off waiting till she's gone to bed before whacking any of that on and sticking on the headphones. And the very worst thing I can do is to get all "scholarly" about the stuff I like that she doesn't.

Life is one big compromise!