I utterly love Shirley and possess most of her recordings, all of which I cherish. "Anthems," wonderful. A lovely compilation album called Fountain Of Snow, I treasure. Best of all, No Roses. Drops hot shit on Fairport and Steeleye in m'humble.

But Shirley: "I can’t bear Schumann or Schubert, and once spent a whole afternoon with somebody who was convinced I ought to like them and played me two whole LPs worth of stupid songs." What!! I love some of Schumann and Schubert but I rarely listen to their songs because the buggers are in German! That comment is not a good look, frankly! I decided a long time ago to either learn German or ignore their songs (they both composed much else apart from songs). Well, I haven't learned German...