>> A few generations of harp-players got their introduction to the basics through his instruction book, which I recall as an entertaining read apart from its useful (and, sometimes, not-so-useful) information.

As a 17 year-old I read it daily, did all the exercises, even those in the awkward chapter on fourth position, and even tried his suggestions on fixing ageing gobirons when they went out of tune, being skint at the time. I looked with envy at the list of albums he recommended.

And, to this day I have heeded his advice: "don't drop them in the toilet, or let anyone with bubonic plague play them, or use them to load fists with or to carry pills in them".

Wise words indeed. Many thanks to, in my view, the greatest of all harmonica teachers.

I'm sad that he's no longer with us. Mind, when I first saw his picture in the book he looked pretty rough and, to my teenaged eyes, near to death.