1. What is your earliest memory of music in your life?
I cannot remember a time I did not want to sing. Earliest? Probably BBC Light Programme jingles from the radio in our kitchen in the 1950s.
2. What was your first 'public performance' of music/ drama/ or both?
Primary school, aged about five. We had a song "Little Robin Redbreast" which the class sung, and I (with bright red hair) stood up and mimed to it pretending to be a robin. I remember it to this day. Terrifying!
3. Who is your favourite composer/ songwriter, and why?
For classical, Ralph Vaughan-Williams. Mike Oldfield, but also classic 1970s/1980s rock/pop - The Quo, Shania Twain, Don Maclean.
4. What composition/ piece/ song would you recommend to a friend to brighten up their day?
I have no idea! People's likes are so individual.
5. Do you have a musical 'claim to fame'?
I have written and performed a few slightly silly songs for my Cambridge postgraduate classes (when I was teaching them) and ditto for the 'filk' sessions at science fiction conferences in the last few years (not a typo - see http://filk.co.uk/index.html). So if 'fame' means less than 100 people, there you go.