Welcome to my web site

Hi - thanks for visiting!

This might be awfully self-indulgent but hope that within these pages, I'll be able to share some of the aspects of my life that have been - and continue to be - special to me. Like most people's lives, there have been good times and bad, tragedies and celebrations, triumphs and disasters. And I shan't pretend that all of them are contained in this web site. But it does at least give me the chance to express myself and share some of my experiences - both happy and sad - with anyone who cares to listen.

Towards the end of 2017, as medical specialists explained to me that no further treatment was possible and that, therefore, my bowel cancer would probably be terminal, I started to seriously reflect on my life. And I realised that it has been rather compartmentalised, a series of chapters, some bearing little or no relation to others.

Few of my current circle of friends, for instance, are familiar with my background, my family, my various careers or those people who have influenced me over the decades. Likewise, I would not expect friends, colleagues or acquaintances from years ago to know what has happened in the intervening years. So I set about writing an illustrated reflection of my 60+ years; you can follow the link here to read it.

I sincerely hope that recipients of the music award that I expect to have been established posthumously at the Royal College of Music in the name of Ged Clapson and Blair Wilson will search out this online resource and discover a little more about me and the man who brought such happiness and love into my life; and it will help them to understand my motivation for supporting their studies at the RCM. And, should anyone choose to say or write a few words about me following my death, I hope this might provide them with a reasonably comprehensive picture.

I am not pretending it is complete: others may have completely different recollections. It is also inevitably selective: there are episodes which I have either deliberately forgotten or the memory has chosen to suppress. I will not even pretend it is totally accurate: it is my interpretation of events and the mind has the habit of playing tricks in our later years.

If you lived through any of these events with me, feel free to add any blank scenes or perspectives. And if you are visiting as a stranger, welcome! Here, for what it's worth, is my personal account of my life ... [follow the link]

And if you should feel like getting in touch, please sign the Guestbook or click the 'Contact' link on the left.

20 March 1955 - 21 November 2018