I wrote all my songs down from memory when I found that my memory was failing.

Some of them took several weeks to get right, though now I find that there are discrepancies between what I wrote and what I sing - I'm not actually singing from the book, even if I am reading it - somehow the words prompt the memory of other words - no idea how it works.

Perhaps I should rewrite them all in the modern versions - which I think are better as they iron out poor rhymes and do a bit of pruning.

If I do another book another change I will make is from A6 size to A5 and write, or even print out, larger - I still have good visual acuity but not as good as it was.

I sing in public very little these days - just at Sidmouth and Wareham, and I like to have the choice of all my songs - just so I can fit in one which seems to go with the others that have been sung, or sometimes I will be asked if I know a song, and then I can sing that. Perhaps if I cut my repertoire down to just a few songs, then I would have sufficient retention to sing them without the book, but I like having 300 songs, I like to see the expression on someone's face when I consult my index and find the words to something they have not heard sung for ages.

If someone gets exercised about my singing from my book I could always do Tam Lin - it might just make them realise that it is lack of recall, not failure to memorise. I am just grateful that I can always recall the tune if I have the words, and most times can play the guitar cords without having to think about it. If I can't get the cords first time I just put the capo on the fret I indicate in my book, and try out a few that might do - usually the shapes start to surface then. At least they have up till now.