Last year’s Magdalen Farm Strings course, which usually takes place at Easter, had to be postponed until July of this year. The first to be directed by Alma Orr-Ewing, who had herself been a participant for many years since the first course in 2008, it was hugely successful. As I’ve done every year I wrote a piece for them – over the past 6 or 7 years it’s always been something for the choir to sing, and this year I brought the collection of songs to words by Carol Ann Duffy to a total of six, with ‘Boo! to a Goose’ and ‘Five Girls’.