BOOKS & CDs

The year 1934 saw the deaths not only of Elgar, Delius and Holst but also, following a tragic road accident, of Norman O’Neill, aged only 58. This much-loved figure, a member of the ‘Frankfurt Gang’ and a close friend of Delius, was especially renowned for the music he wrote for many theatre productions, most famously J.M. Barrie’s ‘Mary Rose’ and Maurice Maeterlinck’s ‘The Blue Bird’. Katherine Hudson, granddaughter of the composer, has overseen the preparation by EM Publishing of a new edition of this definitive 1945 biography by her father Derek Hudson, with end-matter extensively revised and amplified by Stephen Lloyd and additional photographs. Percy Grainger expressed his gratitude to the author on the book’s appearance ‘for having written such a masterly & heart-warming tribute to our dear genius-friend… with your inspired insight into and sympathy with the subject’.