‘But I gave up the violin because, however much I tried, it just came out sounding like cats. I’d look up and the yard would be full of them, all yowling. No, seriously, it was like a tribe of cats or even worse, and the neighbours kept complaining. One day my uncle gave me Antonia, which used to belong to his own uncle, and I discovered that with frets on the fingerboard I could be a good musician. So there you are.’ Pelagia smiled, ‘So do cats like the mandolin?’ ‘This is a little known fact,’ he said in a confidential manner, ‘but cats like anything in the soprano range. They don’t like
...more
