Still Sad Music by Peter Leyland
Still Sad Music
I was a bit stuck for an idea for this month’s blog but once I began thinking about books and writing the ideas wouldn’t stop coming. In order the ones that seemed most interesting were: a visit to Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage in Grasmere; attending a self-publishing day in Buckingham; and appearing on BBC Radio Belfast to talk about bibliotherapy.
My visit to Grasmere with my wife was also a visit to meet up with her sister, Pen, who lost her husband about this time last year. She lives in Scotland so to get our trains to co-incide we met her in Windermere and then took a taxi to Glenthorne guest house where we were staying. Glenthorne is a Quaker Centre and provided us with a stay of peace and tranquillity. Each day there was a 20-minute silence organized by Caroline the resident Friend. We attended the silence on one or two occasions, although there was no obligation to do this. Breakfast and dinners were unfailingly excellent, leaving only room for a snack lunch.
On our second day there we took a bus from Grasmere to Dove Cottage, once home to William and sister Dorothy Wordsworth. We were shown round in some detail by Luke our guide. I asked him how he had first become interested in Wordsworth and he said that it had happened in the sixth form. I recalled my first acquaintance with the poet which had happened at the same stage in my own education. Although mine and Luke’s ages were fifty years apart, Wordsworth had exerted his own magic on both of us. I kept recalling lines from his poem about Tintern Abbey and from his autobiographical poem The Prelude, particularly ‘spots of time’ from the latter which recalls moments of high emotional charge. This is something that I can relate to my own interest in bibliotherapy, where during the reading of parts of a novel or a poem one can sometimes be overtaken by an almost mystical state.
This state is often a part of my reading experience but I will have to leave that to another time. The next event to record is my recent attendance at a meeting of self-published authors at the local library in Buckingham. It was billed as ‘a showcase, celebrating local writing talent’ and was being run by Carol Castallanos from "By Hook By Book", a reading and cultural engagement program run by Buckinghamshire Libraries. There were several writers there and the day proceeded in the following manner: one of the writers would introduce three others who would then tell the audience of around twenty five people about their writing and their books. After this introduction there was a session called Authors’ Marketplace where the audience could browse, meet the authors and possibly buy a book. The process was repeated until all the authors had had an opportunity to sell themselves and their wares.
I ended up with two books, one by Sue Wright called Legacy which she gave me after we had chatted about its subject, the war in Sarajevo. Her book is a novel about the war and how it interacts with the life of a family in Oxfordshire and hopefully it won't be long before I get down to reading it. My list of books to read grows longer every day. Anyway, the other acquisition was a book called Coffee and Commute by B.B. Elsin or Beth as she introduced herself to me. Her book has an attractive blue cover and within it Beth has assembled Themes in her life under five headings: The Natural World, Yearning, Mystery, Struggle and Everyday. I have already looked at one or two of them, “Tulip Mania” and “Discovering Black Gold”. The first one from The Natural World made me think about my reading of Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach which was part of a WEA course I had taught about Money in Literature; the second from Everyday reminded me of my trip to the Lake District mentioned above. In this Theme Beth describes how she found the Wordsworth Museum in Grasmere closed and had to divert to the Pencil Museum in Keswick. The diversion served her well. ‘Dear Reader,’ she says at the end,‘I went in taking pencils for granted, and I came out wanting to start a pencil cult!’
My final idea for this blog came when, completely out of the blue, I received an invitation from BBC Radio Belfast to be part of a panel to discuss ‘reading as consolation’ on a programme called Talkback. The programme was to mark Book Week, a joint enterprise between Northern Ireland Libraries and the BBC in the city. The other guests were John Campbell, whose wife had died recently, and Dr Jane Legua, an academic at Queens University in Belfast specialising in dementia studies. I was there because of my interest in bibliotherapy, which I have written articles about for adult-education journals. The panel was chaired by William Crawley who as it turned out was to play a sensitive role in the panel’s discussion.
John began by talking about how since his wife’s death he had read through her book collection and how it had provided some comfort and consolation for him because it kept his connection to her. He was now, he said, reading a lot of fiction by female writers like Marilynne Robinson, something that he wouldn’t have considered before. Jane spoke about her work at the university and projects that she is running for people with dementia. At this point I recalled some research that I had been looking at by academics at Cambridge University, which shows that reading can slow cognitive decline and reduce the risk of this illness.
When asked by William to give some definition of bibliotherapy, I spoke about how it was historic, stretching back to at least the 16th Century. I mentioned how I had undertaken a research project with WEA literature students about the use of poetry and novels to enhance our lives, and that they had chosen to read aloud poems like “The Road Not Taken” by Roert Frost and songs such as “In My Life” by The Beatles. As I was talking I heard the sound of sobbing:
There was a silence and here William Crawley showed his professionalism, his skill at managing such discussions. He left a gap a space of some minutes on the air.
When we resumed, John continued talking about how remembering his wife’s reading had eased his grief. Jane talked further about her research and I made a mental note to find out more about it. Turning to me, and you should realise that I couldn’t see anybody there – my link to the radio talk was on my mobile phone – William Crawley asked if I had anything more to say about bibliotherapy. I replied by mentioning the importance of reading the right book at the right time and said that when my brother-in-law died of a sudden stroke, I had read a book where the same thing happened to the main character.
As the programme ended, I was asked for any further thoughts, and I said that I was sorry about the demise of the BBC TV programme Between the Covers, chaired by Sarah Cox, where celebrities were asked to discuss their favourite books. This idea lifted the mood, and everybody laughed.
Later, after I had listened to a recording of the programme, I emailed Grania McFadden, the Assistant Editor at Talkback, who had invited me to join the panel. She told me that John was very keen to talk about his wife Fiona and that it was brave of him to be so open about his grief.
*My title refers to part of Wordsworth's poem, Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey:
'For I have learned/To look on nature, not as in the hour/Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes/The still sad music of humanity.'
If you have never read the poem, I heartily recommend that you do.
Further reference:
Brierly, C. Reading for pleasure and better health, in Psychological Medicine; 15th Sept 2026
Elsin, B.B. (2026) Coffee and Commute, Mindful Reading for Active Minds and Busy Lives
Leyland, P. (2026) The right book at the right time. Authors Electric
Wright, S. (2026) Legacy
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