I start the car to get to the shops and as is my habit I turn on the radio. It is tuned to radio four. The sound gets on my nerves. I press the preset button for radio three. I enjoy the music. Now on one hand I am lucky perhaps, I find myself listening to a piece of music I recognise by Handel – I do not of course know the name while I listened to it but afterwards learn it is called Zadok the Priest. The importance of this moment for me is that there is a certain frame of mind when what we know as classical music stimulates, no that’s not the right word, when classical music somehow fits into all of the crevices of my thoughts. It doesn’t ride on top of them but it settles, or even forces itself between all the elements and renders the surface and apparently calm.