The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 3 Halt by the Brook Part 2

The following is part of the opening chapters of a novel I have written based on my youthful experiences. It is based on Schubert's song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin which tells the tale of a young miller who falls in love. You can find the earlier chapters on this blog. One day I'll put the whole thing up as a iBook.


The Beautiful Miller Maid
Chapter 3 Halt by the Brook part 2

Tring retired to the tiny kitchen and King continued to talk to this fascinating young lady. He had never spoken to a young pubescent girl before. This was a first for him. King felt strangely drawn to her. He wanted to know all about her and the time flew. Eventually he thought the time had arrived for her to sing. Actually he was dreading it as he was so afraid that she would not be able to mange the part and he would be left Phebe-less. He knew without a young Phebe his Ghosts would remain on the shelf. Fortunately the potential Phebe was totally in the dark about this.

The baby grand was by the wall and almost filled the tiny room. Simon placed her on his left side and she was right against the wall and up beside his ear. There was not room to swat a fly.

“Now give me the score!” he demanded.

“I am awfully sorry but I don’t have any music. Miss Salmon did not give me one”.

“Look I am awfully sorry Antoinette but although I write this stuff I can only play it from music!” said an exasperated King. “Tring!”

The next quarter of an hour was taken up with a hilarious search of the flat by the two bachelors until eventually by luck one was found.

The moment now could not be put off any longer and Antoinette started to sing the difficult little lullaby that Phebe sings to her doll. The moment Antoinette started to sing it was as if they were still lost again in the dream on the stage at Churston.

She sang it beautifully, dead in time dead in tune he couldn’t believe his luck. King looked at her seriously straight into her eyes.


"Well you can manage that!" was all he said. No notes, no "this could be taken faster" just "Well I think you can manage that."

“How many rehearsals did you have to learn this?” he enquired “And when was your last practice?”

“Three hours only. The last was about ten days ago”

“Pansy is a devil” he thought. “Gosh this child is clever.”

“Let’s do it again!” There was no need to ‘Do it again!” as she had sung it perfectly. For the television it was not necessary for her voice to fill a two thousand-seater theatre if she could do The Anger Quartet she would be perfect but he wanted her to “do it again” simply because he had enjoyed the experience of singing with a young girl standing close to his ear. He found the soft feel of her body up so close exceptionally comforting and to his surprise enjoyable. He had never felt like this before.

He found he enjoyed playing and making music with her and this would be his only chance. The lullaby had never sounded so good. He never went to rehearsals and he could never ever ask her, a young girl to come to his flat again. So it was now or never.

She was so near and he could feel her soft breath on the back of his neck. It was so sexy. He discovered he loved to hear her soft female voice in his ear. It made him want to kiss her. He loved the smell of her. She was slightly sweaty as she had been dancing all day but he found her smell so enticing. He never, never felt like this with Tring! Tring was kept on the other side of the piano but how nice it was to have someone close beside you blowing softly in one’s ear. Like a cat purring on your shoulder saying “I love you! Unconditionally, Love me” in your ear.

King made the audition last as long as he could. He went through “the Anger” aria twice and she just told him the top ‘A’ was too high. “I just cannot sing it. I have a light voice but not a high voice. Please you said you would re write to make it easier for me”.

“I did indeed, but you can sing this. Phebe although a child is an old, old woman, so my writing is for an old woman but it is so effective if you could sing it as is.” Also King knew re orchestration was expensive and it would put the oboe into a difficult key.

Again she was perfect and he offered not one word of advice or correction. King knew he had found his Phebe but he was not going to tell her just yet.

He did not want her to go.  None of his little boys had been able to talk to me like this as an equal. He talked and talked about music and Devon about the poems of Thomas Hardy which she was studying. He even got her to recite one but by half past nine a 15 year old Antoinette really had to go. He took both her hands and squeezed with feeling as if to say once again thank you.

“I enjoyed our evening making music together. Tring is right ! You should learn “Die Schöne Müllerin”. If you do we could sing it together for fun.”

“I’ll do my best Mr. King. I cannot promise. I have to take my intermediate ballet exam next month and my GCE’s.” With that Antoinette put on her school hat and the pretty Miller’s maid said goodnight to the two bachelors walked the mile in the of late night to the tube station and went home to Hillingdon. She arrived at eleven o’clock and her parents did not bat an eyelid.

But that night a15 year old Antoinette too felt that something special had happened. She too felt close to Simon and had fallen under his spell. To be honest for once Simon had not done this deliberately as he had planned originally as he really, really needed a young Phebe. He genuinely liked and admired her as a colleague but she was just15 and a child, a pretty little ballet dancer with a small but accurate voice and at the moment extremely useful so must be cultivated. No Phebe no TV Ghosts and that meant a lot to him.

Tring was amused and went around humming “Die Schöne Müllerin” and from that moment Antoinette’s nickname became “Die Schöne Müllerin” between themselves, although the rest of the entourage eventually called her Phebe. It was the start of a strange menage a trios that would lead to tragedy like the song cycle.

For the next few years Antoinette was not to feature in Mr. Tring’s life and he hardly gave her another thought although Pansy Salmon did.

Simon King was just relieved to have found a young Phebe. He felt sure he had done enough to entice Miss Miller to accept the role and from then on took little interest. "If that concert is anything to go by she will be fine but perhaps I’ll put her on the Xmas card list" and Miss Miller almost became a ghost!


Thank you all for reading this 'trail'. The response has encouraged me to try to make an iBook! Then for a few dollars you can find out what happened.

The Beautiful Miller Maid by Janette Miller Chapter 3 Halt by the Brook part 1

The following is part of the opening chapters of a novel I have written based on my youthful experiences. It is based on Schubert's song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin which tells the tale of a young miller who falls in love. You can find the earlier chapters on this blog. One day I'll put the whole thing up as a iBook.

The Beautiful Miller Maid by Janette Miller
Chapter 3 Halt by the Brook Part 1

 “I think she will do for Phebe” said Simon. “I’ll get Louis Crick to write to her school. I’ll get Pansy to teach her the two little arias and see if she is up to it. I’ll tell her school I am prepared to rewrite.”

“Do what you like” said a disinterested Tring “but I shall never sing Rawlings again even for British Television” and Tring lost interest. It was now another rival that took up the cudgels against Antoinette who was in the future to prove deadly.

Pansy Salmon was duly instructed to teach Antoinette the fiendishly difficult little aria that Phebe sings to her doll. Pansy by now was completely jealous. Her best friend had played the first Phebe and it seemed inconceivable that this chit of a girl with no musical background should usurp the role. Pansy’s strategy was masterly inactivity, just three one hour sessions and no score to the applicant.

“That should put paid to her chances” thought Pansy who was a first class unmarried bitch.

November came and the  BBC decided to do The Ghosts so it became imperative to see if Antoinette was up to it. It was arranged that she should come to Simon’s flat in Swiss Cottage at 5 pm on a dark cold night in November and sing for him. He forgot and it was around about six o’clock when he and Tring arrived in the dark at their London “pad”.

The flats on the second floor had a flight of steps leading up to it. The entrance was forbidding. It was of the hideous red brick Edwardian era and resembled  the blocks of council flats in the next suburb. The flats also had the sort of lights that turn themselves off when not needed to save electricity and when the happy party pushed the button and turned on the lights they were in for the shock of their lives. There was a young schoolgirl in full uniform sitting on the door step of their flat who was overjoyed to see them.

“I’m awfully sorry” said Simon, “How long have you been here? We were delayed.”

The child very composed stood up and said “Since five. The lights went out and I had no idea where I was. I was afraid to move for fear of falling down the stairs. I have never seen this type of light before.

My chaperone just bought me here and dumped me. I mean you were supposed to be here at 5 pm. Then all the lights in the passage went out and I was stuck. I mean you are sort of on the second floor and I have only been here once.”

Antoinette sound like a very young and “Not amused” Queen Victoria. It was hard to say who was the most embarrassed, Antoinette or the naughty and rude grown men who ought to have known better. Actually her school should have known better! Taking a child to a man's flat and then leaving her alone on the doorstep would not be allowed today!

Antoinette was ushered in to the tiny and to her disappointing flat of the major English Opera composer. It was small, dark, dingy and depressing and she felt unworthy of so great a man. Tring was dispatched to make tea.

“Indian or China” he called out in his upper middle class voice. This would be enough to intimidate any working class or lower middle class child as he well knew but he was greeted with the words.

“Russian, please but if you have no lemon china will do!" came the confident reply.

Simon could not help laughing. He knew exactly what Tring was up too. Putting Antoinette in her place! There was no lemon!

For the first time Simon decided he better get to know this young girl a little better so he sat down and started to ask her a few questions. He did this with his little boy friends all the time. Cars and aeroplanes were his usual openers but here was a little girl. King was at a bit of a loss and then he remembered that Antoinette had seen his disastrous production of“Henry VIII” at the Royal Opera House so he asked her about that.

He discovered she was a little ballet dancer who had worked at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden since the age of twelve in the ballets and consequently had had an almost impeccable musical education. That is why she knew all his ballet music so well. It seemed she had grown to love opera and ballet and besides watching rehearsal from the wings queued for tickets in the gallery for the operas and ballet.

She was astoundingly knowledgeable especially in modern music, which she loved. She could talk knowledgeably about Beethoven, Berlioz, Herne Heinz, Wagner and Stravinsky as well as himself.

“You should try Mahler” Simon said.

“I don’t do symphonic music. I get so bored at concerts as I am always waiting for the curtain to go up. That's why I like opera” Simon was not impressed that this young lady with impeccable taste did not like Mahler and told her she would learn to love Mahler as she grew older. He suggested Symphony 2 Second Movement as a start.  In her school uniform Antoinette still looked 12 years old. She had not grown one inch.

She looked him straight in the eyes and said seriously. "Mahler is never performed and I cannot afford the records! Long playing records are  expensive".

Tea was served, China as there was no lemon and Tring, trying to be helpful suggested that Antoinette should learn Schubert. Antoinette had a small voice but would be suitable for this genre. Antoinette was at a disadvantage, as she had never come across Schubert. Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky wrote ballet music and it appeared that Schubert wrote songs.

“My dear young lady, you should sing Schubert, I know it is written for the male voice but your tiny voice would suit it and it is not as if you will ever be performing it in public, is it” Tring delivered in a condescending manner.

Antoinette looked at Tring rather like Alice in Wonderland looking at the caterpillar on the mushroom.

“Tring and I perform the two Schubert cycles often” said Simon softly. He could see that Tring was in danger of putting Antoinette off

“ I’ll make a point of looking up the songs up when I get home. I am not a singer I am a ballet dancer.” said Antoinette defensively.

“Antoinette Miller,” said Tring for that was her surname and this was the first time he had grasped the suitability of the name , “ Why ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’ Tring exclaimed in glee sounding more like Lewis Carrol's caterpillar than ever!

‘Yes, you shall be King’s “Schöne Müllerin”

King too was struck by the aptness of Miss Miller’s surname and both of the mature men giggled like naughty boys and the “in” joke went far above Antoinette’s head as although she spoke French she did not have one word of German. Translated “Die Schöne Müllerin” means “Beautiful Miller Maid”. It was a joke that would come to haunt them all.


The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 3 Part 2 can be found here.

The Beautiful Miller Maid By Janette Miller Chapter 2 part 4

The following is part of the opening chapters of a novel I have written based on my youthful experiences. It is based on Schubert's song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin which tells the tale of a young miller who falls in love. You can find the earlier chapters on this blog. One day I'll put the whole thing up as a iBook.

The Beautiful Miller Maid by Janette Miller

Chapter 2 Where? Part 4

Performance, any performance is like consummating a marriage. Here was an middle aged, performance hardened experienced man and a young, inexperienced girl of whom King actually knew nothing, performing in front of this knowledgeable audience and neither of them had really met let alone practiced. Simon knew at that moment that he had taken one hell of a risk. It could be a disaster for both of them.

It was just like consummating an arranged marriage in public. Both had to get on with it, like another famous couple, a young Marie Antoinette and her young husband, many years ago in France, in very public public.  It took Louis XVI many years but for King and Antoinette the moment had come.

Antoinette stood still and composed while Simon played page after page of the introduction. It was very long and seemed even longer to Antoinette who had never heard it before and keeping his fingers crossed Simon gave the eye signal and four bars later in Antoinette came dead in pitch and singing like an angel.

Audiences then were unused to the untrained, natural female voice. There was little call for it. Composers never wrote for young girls only choir boys and because of no audio enhancement young girls had to trained to become hooting  hollering sopranos so the freshness of the sound that came out of her mouth was like a breath of magic. The audience sat stunned as they listened for perhaps the first time, to the beauty a young girl’s voice.  The Pied Piper part had not done Antoinette justice but Wagner certainly had.

The piece was over and both Antoinette and Simon were overcome with relief. He got up and kissed her and said  “Thank you, thank you so much. I am just so sorry I put you through this.” Then he took her had and squeezed it as only an intimate can. His handshake said “Thank you we are artistic equals and I admire you! You may be just 14 but not many singers could do what you did for me tonight ”

Simon led her forward to take her applause and she curtseyed so beautifully and gracefully and gently without smiling as if to say to the audience “for me? This is for me?” Then still in the deep curtsey she raised her head and smiled at the audience, flashing her eyes from side to side , taking in the house and the house responded and went absolutely wild with applause and encores.

“I think we must ask for an encore!” The Royal host demanded and amid the uproar Antoinette looked a Mr. King and said ‘Do you mean I have to do this again?”

“I am afraid so” said Mr. King “Sorry, but you’ll enjoy this time. We both shall enjoy it this time” and they did. This time they knew what they were doing and the music took them to a different world away from the crowds.

It was over, again rapturous applause. King arose from the piano, took Antoinette’s hand and said while shaking it softly. “I really enjoyed that, thank you, thank you so much!” Simon King's admiration for this young lady who had done him proud under the most difficult circumstances was boundless. Miss Miller had definitely put Tring in his place, even Tring could not top her  performance that night!

A kiss on the forehead, lots of curtseys  and that was it.  Antoinette Miller left for London with her parents the next morning.

“The audience certainly seemed to like her” said a flustered Tring the next day. "Pity she is not a boy!”

The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 3 Part 1 The Halt by the Brook can be found here

The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 2 part 3 Where?

The following is part of the opening chapters of a novel I have written based on my youthful experiences. It is based on Schubert's song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin which tells the tale of a young miller who falls in love. You can find the earlier chapters on this blog. One day I'll put the whole thing up as a iBook.

The Beautiful Miller Maid


Chapter 2, part 3 Where

Pansy Salmon was told to teach Antoinette the Wagner. Pansy, an aged spinster, who worshipped Simon was so jealous of this tiny girl that she followed Tring’s instructions to the letter. Pansy gave Antoinette just twenty minutes instruction. Considering the male children had had six weeks to pull The Pied Piper together this translated into virtually none.

Trevor reported that Pansy said Antoinette was fine but unmusical. Can’t play the piano but has a good ear.

The night of the Wagner Gala arrived cold and wet. It can rain in Devon and as tempus fugits there was no time for even a full run through for Antoinette. Trevor Tring saw to that. Antoinette was being asked to perform in front of one of the most knowledgeable musical audiences in Great Britain without a full run through. No one had bothered. Nobody had told her anything except that it was the most prestigious concert of the whole festival and she was a very lucky girl.

Antoinette was bright enough to realize that this was totally unfair on her but she had better try to put on a show.

Trevor kept Simon busy with the members Royal Family who were present until the last few minutes before the house was let in. It was bucketing down with rain and they could not be kept out any longer. The Churston Church hall was basic.

Then the stage manager realized that nobody had given Antoinette a run through.

“Mr. Tring” said Nigel Field “You must give the little girl and run thorough”

“She’ll be OK! I’m too busy and so is Mr. King. Let the audience in”

The Stage Manager was not afraid of Mr. Tring. “I am not opening those doors unless that child has a run through. Are you mad? Get Mr. King on this stage immediately and have a run through!”

“There isn’t time. Pansy says she knows it. It won’t matter if it is a disaster. I mean I did tell Simon not to do it! The girl is a dancer after all, not a musical bone in her body. Open the doors”

“Sorry!”

So Mr. King was prized from the Royal Family and was forced to rehearse. Never suspecting that the last time and only time Antoinette had sung this was yesterday morning for twenty minutes.

This was the first time Simon had spoken to Antoinette since the audition. Yes he had seen her as a child in the opera but this was the first time he had actually seen Antoinette as a person.

She was wearing a very pretty grey dress with a fluffy pink petticoat so fashionable in the 1950’s and she had the cutest of shoes, little gold sling backs with a slight high heal and her hair that had been hidden in the horrific costume was clean, shiny and softly curled. She was poised and confident and Simon could hardly believe his eyes. This was not the little 14 year old he had expected. In fact she looked closer to 17 than 14. Here was a young beautiful, poised young lady who was on the brink of adulthood. She was tiny though, just 4ft 9 ins and in school uniform and the ghastly Pied Piper costumes she looked about 12.

Antoinette looked startlingly pretty and fresh and not at all flustered. She looked rather annoyed. Simon immediately felt guilty. He should have rehearsed with her properly and now there was little time and in fact no time for a proper run through. Damn Tring.

“Look Antoinette, time is short, there is a bit of an introduction which I haven’t time to play for you but when I nod come in four bars later.”

They then proceeded to sing the work through once without the introduction and that was it! Antoinette faced one of the toughest musical and social audiences one could ever face with one rehearsal and a half run through.

A very nervous Antoinette waited through the first half of the concert and the rain was dashing down. David came along to help and encourage in an ironic way as he was miffed at not having been chosen. David was not used to playing second fiddle and never did again.

The special item was scheduled as the first on after the interval. It was not on the program so the audience got a coup de theatre as the curtain arose with Simon King seated at the piano and a beautiful young girl center stage with four young children behind her. Tring had been right about this bit!

A gasp of pleasure was heard from the audience and while the Presenter the Royal Duke and cousin of the Queen, gave the introduction one could hear the audience working out that the pretty young lady centre stage was the little girl from The Pied Piper. She stood amazingly still while the long introduction of about three minutes was played.

During this introduction Simon himself began to get nervous. He realized that Trevor had set him up and he was furious and he could hardly stop now and say ladies and gentlemen Your Royal Highnesses, I have to withdraw this item as I haven’t rehearsed it and it would be unfair on the young lady that is before you but he would dearly have loved to. For once Simon King was nervous.

“Oh my God I should have warned Antoinette that the introduction takes three minutes” thought Simon a bit too late. “I hope to God she comes in!”

The Duke who was Simon’s greatest hetrosexual friend and one of the few lovers of serious modern music in The Royal Family went on and on with his introduction for about 5 minutes. It was interesting, but for Antoinette and King it only put off the moment of truth. Would she come in?

“Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and gentlemen I give you Richard Wagner’s birthday tribute to his wife.”

King caught Antoinette’s eye as he began to play and she looked at him and for the first time they were alone together.


To be continued tomorrow!

The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 2 Where? by Janette Miller

The Beautiful Miller Maid

Encouraged by the fact I had quite a few readers I shall upload Chapter 2 part 1.

Chapter  2

Song 2 Where?

Trevor and Simon were not involved with the rehearsals for ‘The Pied Piper’ in any way. Trevor did not have a part for once in ‘The Pied Piper’ much to his chagrin, Simon had deliberately not cast him. Trevor was destined to be cast as a villain in the nicest possible way. True there were lots of children in the cast and in the orchestra and that is where the two gentlemen spent most of their time.

In fact during the first weeks of rehearsals in London and at Churston, the cast saw virtually nothing of Mr. King at all except for the favoured  young male tenor who just got One lift home in the Alvis, a particularly expensive open topped sports car the make of which Simon King was particularly fond. It made him feel young.

“The Pied Piper has an awful lot of boys.” the jolly Australian conductor Digger McQueen unwisely remarked to a gay colleague of Simon.  Digger was one of the most talented opera conductors around, had a ready heterosexual wit and seemed unaware that anyone could take offense.

“Simon has gone overboard this time! Not one boy but hundreds of boys!” This comment landed Digger in hot water. One of Trevor’s ‘little clique’ who had actually wanted to direct The Pied Piper himself sneaked to try to curry favor with Trevor and Simon. He did the unthinkable and told Trevor.

For Simon and Trevor this was not only an insult but a blow. If this became public it would be the end of their careers and perhaps the start of a prison sentence. Simon liked children, he would have liked his own but Trevor really did like boys. Simon felt his partner was more of a voyeur than an active pedophile but nevertheless this was the most dangerous moment in their entire public career and he would be an accomplice. Like Adam and Eve’s children he would pay for that sin.  

There was a nasty scene in the doorway of the local village hall where rehearsals of The Pied Piper were taking place where Digger McQueen and Simon King nearly came to blows. Simon it must be said landed a heavy right cut from which the Australian reeled. Fortunately none of the children witnessed this altercation and it was quickly hushed up. 

Digger was summoned to The Mill, where Tring and King lived in great splendor. Two very angry men accosted Digger. King would have loved to have sacked the conductor on the spot but what reason could he give? That the conductor was sacked because he had made a somewhat humorous but unwise remark about the pair being pedophiles?  Hardly.

“There are lots of girls too” said a very haughty Tring in his best upper class BBC voice in order to put the rough colonial in his place and so there were but out of sight.

The BBC Arts in Focus had been filming the opera but the young ladies all three of them had been banished to the beach while the boys did their bit in front of the cameras. Not a young girl in sight. One of the young ladies, Antoinette actually, had pointed out to Louis Crick who was wearing the tightest of trousers that it would be nice if the girls could be included in the documentary or words to that effect. Louis who would forgive a little boy anything could not bring himself to be questioned by a fourteen year old girl in such an outrageous fashion and banishment to the beach for the little girls was the punishment.

In the interests of ‘balance’ and to give a good impression the three little girl soloists were quickly retrieved from their isolation on the beach and without any rehearsal shoved in front of the cameras to restore the balance. For years after Antoinette felt that it was her outburst that had resulted in the change but she was mistaken.

Almost as bad was the fact that Simon King minus Trevor Tring was forced to waste a day and go and watch a rehearsal for the cameras. God how he hated rehearsals! It immediately  became apparent after one take that a new star had arrived in Churston. The little girl he had auditioned and had enchanted him was quickly enchanting everyone else and yet she did nothing. She had no part, a couple of solo lines and even these were a duo and yet Simon could not take his eyes off her.

Antoinette stood out like a beckon. She just sort of “shone”.

Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 2 part 2 Where? can be found here.

The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 1 To Wander by Janette Miller

Here as promised is the first chapter of my novel. There is a prologue which I have omitted. The book is based on the Schubert song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. There are 24 songs and 24 chapters. The cycle tells a tale of a three sided love triangle. It ends in tragedy. A CD of the songs accompanies the book and is already available on iTunes.

The Beautiful Miller’s Maid 

Song One – To Wander Die Schöne Müllerin Schubert

It became necessary to hunt for a few little girls again to sing alongside the boys in The Pied Piper. The girls parts would be small, just a couple of solo lines. This did not stop Simon King from writing some horrible musical lines full of augmented fourths for the poor little girls whereas the boys lines were a piece of cake as Simon knew how to write for young male voices.

It was decided in desperation and as a last resort to audition girls from the local London Professional Arts Schools of which there were three. These schools were actually ballet schools providing child ballet dancers for the Royal Ballet which would not allow children from its own school on stage at this time, along with children for musicals and television. Some of the little ballet dancers had singing lessons.

If the girls could handle one line and were small they would do at a pinch. Naturally more trouble was taken with the boys, as they would have the major parts.

One morning in April Simon, without Trevor who could not bring himself to be present on this occasion although wild horses would not have stopped him being at every audition when young boys where involved, found himself in a small room in a Regency House in Hyde Park listening to a selection of young girls from London ballet schools that had already been pre selected by his gay but very creative director Louis Crick. It was not encouraging.

The morning was almost over when a tiny little fourteen year old with mousey hair and a very old singing teacher who was obviously a bit the worse for wear and very nervous entered the room. Simon had made sure that his name was not mentioned to the little girls although the singing teacher knew very well to whom she was about to perform, Britain’s foremost classical composer, and it scared her stiff. Dutch courage has been called for.

The last little girl curtsied, which Simon found vaguely amusing, why didn’t Trevor do that? and started to sing, a sentimental Edwardian song, “The Second Minuet”. She sounded a little nervous and tremulous but her voice was clear and true and she had, something, a special quality and nothing else had aroused any interest that morning and she was small.

The little girl finished curtsied again very prettily and her singing teacher relieved it was all over made haste to collect the music and leave.

“Just a moment” said Mr. King “Have you anything that you could sing a little faster?”

“No I am afraid she hasn’t” said Miss Wakefield, for that was the singing teacher’s name. “I am so sorry”.

The little girl seeing her chance of fame and fortune fading away jumped in with alacrity. “Oh but Miss Wakefield what about “The Fairy Pipers? I can sing that!”

Miss Wakefield gasped in horror. “The Fairy Pipers” was a Victorian musical hall song with double entendre, which had gone unnoticed by a young innocent fourteen year old but Miss Wakefield knew was highly unsuitable for performance to the greatest British living and very gay composer. Miss Wakefield was not going to let her lack of musical taste let her down on such an occasion. She had her standards.

“So sorry I haven’t got the music, come on Antoinette and she pushed Antoinette out of the room.”

“Oh but Miss Wakefield” said an anxious little voice “You always play it from memory!”

Then Simon used all his little boy charm. He was not really interested in this little girl, she could have walked out and he would never have given her another thought but he was bored and decided to try his ‘little boy lost ‘act to see if it would work and it did. Like a charm.

Simon had this ability and charisma to make people fall in love with him almost instantly. It was enchanting and it worked every time on male and female alike. It was hard to resist. Many women in his past had been bowled over by this feat. Lorna Winter was still enthralled. Simon knew he could do it and he secretly enjoyed it. Trevor knew this too and took great care to see any female conquests were disposed of rapidly, even Lorna would go as soon as Trevor could get an opportunity. But Lorna was canny.

“For me” said the little boy lost seductively looking into Miss Wakefield’s eyes, “Just this once?” and Miss Wakefield did. Never in her life had this elderly spinster been looked at in such a fashion. Miss Wakefield’s knees trembled and she caved in graciously. Miss Wakefield’s reward was never to see him again.

What happened next was momentous. Antoinette launched into the musical hall song, which was all about fairy pipers playing about at night with actions. She did the lot with a straight face and totally oblivious to the sexual innuendos. Finishing up with a “Come! Come!” and another curtsey. That’s three already thought Simon. What next?

How Simon and Louis kept a straight face throughout this song will never be known but they did. It must have been hilarious as never before or since has anybody auditioned for Simon King, England’s youngest and famous classical composer with a musical hall song about “fairies” and got away with it.

“Thank you Antoinette” said a shaken Mr. King “That was very nice” and he looked down to see who was to be next. Both of the men were about to explode with laughter and the quicker the elderly woman and the young innocent, mousy girl left the better.

“Excuse me” said a small but attractive speaking voice “But are you Mr. King, the composer of “Henry VIII”?

Mr. King, the said composer looked up in astonishment!

“Yes! Yes I am! How did you know that?”

I recognized you from the photo in the souvenir program. My mother took me to see Henry VIII at Covent Garden in Coronation year and I adored it, may I just say how I love all your ballets. I have seen “The Little Mermaid “Twice” and not to be stopped Antoinette started to sing the “little march”. As this had yet to come out on LP the only way she could have known this was to have seen it and more than once.

Mr. King took a longer look at this funny little thing who had recognized him and knew his “little march!”

“Thank you! Thank you Antoinette! Not many people actually saw that opera. It was not a success. I don’t think even Louis has seen it!”

Louis concurred.

“Come along, Antoinette, you mustn’t speak to Mr. King like that!” said a flushed and bewildered Miss Wakefield.

Mr. King took another long look at this little girl who had spoken up so knowledgably and he held out his hand to her and shook it with real warmth but he did not bother to look in her eyes as he had done for Miss Wakefield but he was impressed if only for a moment.

Antoinette curtsied yet again, smiled and deliberately caught Simon's eye with a cheeky little grin as if to say, “I’m something special!” It was weird. Simon felt that for once someone had enchanted him as he did with others. For a second Simon had fallen under the spell of a fourteen year old child and a girl child at that. He pulled himself together instantly but she had gone.

“I really cannot see what I see in her” remarked Louis “But she is small and can sing in tune. “She’d make a good Phebe with all those curtseys! Only joking! She’d never sing it. Stupid of you to make Phebe’s music so difficult! We’ll never find a child Phebe now!”

Antoinette got the job as she was the best of a bad bunch and there was truly no one else and duly arrived at Churston Devon for ‘The Pied Piper” rehearsals and the 1958 Churston Music Festival.

The Beautiful Miller Maid Chapter 2  part 1  can be found here!

How to Suffer Successfully the Artist's Lot

In Alain de Botton's excellent book How Proust can change Your Life there are a few lines to which I can sadly relate.

It is the Incomprehension of Friends. 

A characteristic problem for geniuses. When Swann's Way was ready Proust sent copies to his friends, many of whom had difficulty opening the envelope.
'Well my dear Louis, have you read my book?' Proust recalled asking the aristocratic playboy, Louis d'Albufera.
'Read your book? You've written a book?' answered his surprised friend.
'Yes of course Louis, and I even sent you a copy.''
'Ah my little Marcel, if you sent me a copy, I've certainly read it. Only I wasn't sure I had received it.'

Another recipient a Madame Gaston de Caillavet was more grateful. She wrote and thanked the author for his gift and in the warmest tones praised the  passages pertaining to First Communion. She reread them often, she said, as it reminded her of her own experiences. If she had read the book she would have noticed that there was no such religious ceremony in it.

Although I am no genius it appears that I have a similar problem. For years I have been writing a novel. It is about the world that I know intimately,  the  world of Benjamin Britten and the Aldeburgh set. Although I was young and a girl and never included as part of the scene nevertheless I was an observer of what went on and in fact I got to know Britten very well. I was 18 and he was 40. He liked me and I liked him. I was intelligent and sharp intellectually. I must have been different. I was no little boy, quite the oposite. His relationship with his partner  Peter Pears intrigued me and his attitude to me surprised me.

I often wondered what would have happened if Britten had been allowed to meet girls of his age when he was 18.  When he was alone with me which was very rarely but enough to get to know him, he behaved as if he were 18. Sadly now I think I was the only 18 year old girl he ever drove home alone. Ah if he had been 18 and not 40 with a partner in tow things might have been different.

So I have written a what if? I am no Jane Austin or Charlotte Bronte or even Agatha Christie but I wanted to know if my effort was readable so I sent a pdf of what I consider an interesting chapter to my friends. Although the book is complete fiction this chapter told of my audition for the greatest living British composer of the age. It was quite an audition. I was 15, a girl and a ballet dancer!

It was only four pages. I sat back and waited. I heard nothing! I eventually bucked up courage and asked one. She was dismissive. 'I am just not interested in that kind of thing' was all I got. Another said that my sentences were too long! It would have been a good criticism if I had actually written a Proustian sentence but I my style is economic with words. I couldn't write a long sentence if I tried.

Another dear friend said he just hadn't found the time. A great disappointment as being in the profession I should have valued his opinion. I thought all would appreciate the comedy of my situation as it is such an insight to a great man.  I was mistaken. Proust and I have much in common.

It seems it is impossible to get one's friends to read one's work.

Perhaps I should put this chapter up on my blog to see if I get any interest. I should warn you the subject matter is delicate but this chapter other than the incongruity of the tale is perfectly innocent.

Tomorrow perhaps?