My mum was an Ovaltinie - she used to sing 'Dashing away with a smoothing iron' 'Johnny's so long at the fair' 'Linconshire poacher' and her mother used to sing 'do not trust him gentle lady' and the suffragists 'hymn' - I wonder it there are the words anywhere.

My mother's father used to sing rude soldier songs when in his cups, but anyone who heard them will not repeat them - he died back before WWII. I must one day write a song about a drunken Irish milkman who only delivered to the right houses because the horse knew where to stop.

Anne