I remember taking my Aunty Eileen to the old Beggars Bush Folk Club in Sutton Coldfield. Must have been about 1975/6 - Bob Lines was running it.

There was a guy who used to sing who was a lecturer at the local tech, and he was giving us all the usual spiel - you know the sort of thing - tugging forelocks and genulflect in the direction of Rottingdean, etc.

And he starts singing this song, What's the Life of Man in the most lugubrious voice you have have EVER heard.

Now Eileen had been ill for years, clinging onto life by a thread and only just making it. Like weeks before, she had escaped from the jaws of death by a hairbreadth yet again, and as the song rumbled on, I was beginning to worry if she would take it to heart.

I needn't have worried, she reached for my hand and when I looked there were tears of laughter streaming down her face. She was absolutely 'in tucks'.

Thanks for mentioning this song, it has suddenly brought me closer to someone, I wish I'd held closer while she was alive.