"Singing? I'm still trying to get the hang of it..."

Photograph: Bill Cooper

“Honestly, I’m a little daunted by this. The next few sentences were going to be full of reasons why I don’t think I’m qualified to hand out advice on something that I seemed to just stumble into and am still, daily, trying to get the hang of. On the other hand, I am getting a bit wrinkly and I am beginning to notice with alarm that younger folk often pipe down as I, the strong and stable wise old sage, start to tell my stories. And so on that basis, and because I have sung a lot of notes in a lot of places, I shall get on with it.”