A bit of a thrill to see my GIRLS in this extract in the newspaper today, and so lavishly illustrated with a portrait of Jane Austen (herself a serious piano student throughout her adolescence and young adulthood), and one of Renoir’s familiar Jeune Filles au Piano paintings from 1892.

While the print version carried the headline ‘Notes on the Piano’, the online link to the article reads: ‘A writer recalls how the piano offered her protection from social persecution’. Too much vibrato, perhaps?!