Bringing together well-known writers with composers and performers, this volume gives a complete overview of Holt's creative work up to 2015. British composer Simon Holt (b. 1958) has been a leading presence in contemporary music since the early 1980s and Kites. His output is diverse, comprising chamber music, concertos for diverse instruments, songs, piano musicand opera. Holt is a composer who demands unusual commitment from his interpreters - the intricate sound-worlds he creates often contain complex, rich textures, offset by 'still centres' - for the purpose of making music which speaks with extraordinary power. Bringing together well-known writers with composers and performers, this volume gives a complete overview of Holt's creative work up to 2015 and Fool is hurt. It uses a variety of approaches to help readers, listeners and players to find ways into the pieces and to understand the influence of visual art and poetry on Holt's work. Colour illustrations, music examples, tables and sketch facsimiles offer a rounded impression of Holt's inspiration and thought to date. Also included are a wide-ranging conversation between Simon Holt and the artist Julia Bardsley, and a text by the conductor Thierry Fischer. The volume also offers the first detailed catalogue of Holt's compositions, drawn up together with the composer. It reveals that the last twenty years have seen no slowing-up in his rate of creative production, notwithstanding that the nature of his writing has changed during this time. DAVID CHARLTON is Professor Emeritus of Music History, Royal Holloway, University of London. Contributors: JULIA BARDSLEY, DAVID BEARD, DAVID CHARLTON, THIERRY FISCHER, ANTHONY GILBERT, STEPHEN GUTMAN, MELINDA MAXWELL, RICHARD MCGREGOR, STEPH POWER, PHILIP RUPPRECHT, SIMON SPEARE, REBECCA THUMPSTON, EDWARD VENN

A man is accused of murdering his wife - and all the evidence points to his guilt. Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club 'No author is more skilled at making a good story seem brilliant' Sunday Express It was a dark night, clammy with fog; an evil night when anything could happen. That was the night it all began - when the net of cruel circumstance began to close in around Jack Barton The body of his beautiful, murdered wife had rotted away in a trunk in the dark cellar where he had hidden it. It was useless to say hiding the body was all he had done. It was pointless to insist he was innocent of her death. Who would believe him?

They took her identity - they wanted her life - but they couldn't take her spirit. Classic crime from one of the greats of the Detection Club When Julia Ross, a jobless and penniless young woman, is sent to meet a prospective employer, she is oblivious to the trap that awaits her. As she rings the bell to 30 Henriques Square, the door opens on a London household ruled by a woman dressed in red with murderous intentions. For Julia is exactly what she needs - someone with no family, no connections, who will not be missed... Two days later, Julia awakes in a different house in different clothes and with a new identity. And no one will believe anything she says. But the woman in red hadn't reckoned on a secret admirer even Julia didn't know she had - and the indefatigable sleuth Arthur Crook.

It is hard to believe that one man could have had so much influence on the musical life not only of the United Kingdom, but of Europe and beyond. Yet the pages of this delightful memoir reveal the extent to which John Manduell's extraordinary vision, his willingness to venture into unknown territory, his ability to think the unthinkable, his wisdom and his persuasiveness have helped to raise the profile of music in so many areas. This is the man who established the Music Programme at the BBC, who created a Music Department at the new University of Lancaster, who became Founder Principal of one of the UK's most exciting conservatoires, the Royal Northern College of Music, who was Programme Director of the Cheltenham Festival for twenty-six years, who was involved in the setting up of 'El Sistema' in Venezuela, and who served on the Boards of the British Council, the Arts Council, the Association of European Conservatoires, European Music Year, Northern Ballet, the European Opera Centre and Covent Garden - and who still found time to compose. John Manduell writes with clarity, humour, and a disarming modesty, leaving a discussion of his compositions to fellow composer Anthony Gilbert. This volume will give enormous pleasure to those who are interested in learning about one of the leading figures in British and European music in the second half of the twentieth century.