Jake Lee, whom I met at a Counterpoints seminar at Dartington, kindly and generously kicked off the pledging yesterday as it went live.  I am indebted to him and to Aine O'Brien and  Dijana Rakovic at Counterpoints who followed suit swiftly thereafter. Thanks also to my best colleagues Antonio Olmos, Stuart Freedman, Del Barrett of the RPS, and to my dear friend Judy Friedberg . You all rock, as they say. 

As I am fine tuning the text for the book I keep discovering amazing facts : 

I had not realised that my Great Aunt ( my grandmother’s sister, Raye Levin, seated at the piano in the image below)  was the very first woman’s dance band leader in South Africa.  Her band had played at  several parties in the Prince of Wales’s honour in 1925 - and  her banjo player’s banjo  was a treasured item because it had been autographed by the Prince of Wales. 

p.s My other aunt is the drummer.