The Clarionet was the first instrument I ever knew apart from the piano... The Clarionet was also a piece of furniture, because it lived at the back of the sideboard, out of sight of a five-year-old... It lived there in mystery and in silence for six days in each week. On Sundays Dad would reach for it, all blue serge Sunday best and gold watch-chain, and bring it to instant and startling life. He was something in the building trade... but at weekends he always managed to get home to the tiny salt-speckled half-a-house in South Shields to make music upon the Clarionet. I think he was pretty good. Certainly I later tried a lot of the music he used to play, and found it not so easy as it sounded when he played. << less