"Favourite concertina maker" - I'm not sure if I've met seven, I can think of Steve Dickinson, Colin & Rosie Dipper, and Marcus in the UK, and another three in Australia - all, as Mars friend says, very nice people, who have put a lot of time and effort into learning about the instrument and acquiring skills that would formerly have been performed by several specialist crafts-people. Apart from re-tunes and repairs, and the occasional kit of spares,I haven't been able to patronise any of them, so I guess none of them would qualify as "favourite concertina makers" - but "favourite people" - very much so.

"Maker of favourite concertinas" - difficult question.

Even thirty-five and some years ago when I first started looking for an instrument to play, and you didn't need a second mortgage to get going (and I didn't even have a first mortgage anyway!) it was more or less chance that put a playable instrument into your hands. Haunting Portobello Road eventually turned up a Bb/F Jefferies anglo (I think I must have figured out from borrowing/trying friends' instruments that I didn't get along with the English system. Anything more exotic just wasn't around). As I wasn't even considering the possibility of playing with anybody else at that point, the key wasn't a problem, at least it worked for song accompaniment. It is still an uncomfortable instrument to play (a sharp corner rests unavoidably under the heel of my hand), but sounds and plays really sweet after fine-tuning and re-fettling by Marcus about ten years ago. All the three UK experts who have seen it reckon it was made by Jones.

By the time I felt the need for more range, Keith Higham had offered me a Crabb C/G anglo which soon became my main instrument for both tunes and song accompaniment.

A couple of years after that some friends put me in touch with a Salvation Army Lachenal in G/D. Despite being a lot stiffer sprung than the other instruments, and heavier because of the longer reeds, it is the same physical size as the higher-pitched boxes, and has become the first instrument I reach for, with a rich, mellow tone that works well with voice, and still fast enough for most sessions without producing nerve, muscle and joint pains (as long as I don't try to play three hours at a stretch!)

Instruments that might have become favourites - I came across a modern (Dickinson) Wheatstone anglo in C/G that was very light and responsive, lovely tone - however it was in competition with one of Roger Bucknall's citterns that year (he won) and I never saw one again. Many years before that I found an anglo in A/E (can't remember the make) that was the equal of the Dickinson Wheatstone for playability and sweetness of tone. Regretted letting it pass ever since, never saw another like it - if anybody's got an A/E going spare, let me know! (There are still a few keys where the fingering doesn't come easily on the other instruments).

Ross