III. The Wireless
Before the Frosts: the story of the cottage, read aloud a chapter at a time.
Mondays, 10 till 12 in the morning and again 5 till 7 in the evening, and Wednesdays at 4 in the afternoon
The chapters
- An Afternoon In · 2026-10-26
- The Last Swim · 2026-11-02
- The Last Cope · 2026-11-09
- Clag · 2026-11-16
- Bonfire Night · 2026-11-23
- The Fourteenth · 2026-11-30
Every chapter is set down in full here, and to listen again.
On the gramophone
Equinox Air
Played by ear in the front room, and never once written down
“Mother made this up in 1931 and has denied it ever since. Father hums it when she’s out of the room, and she knows.”
The Wall-Builder’s Song
Sung in the top field, which is the only place it has ever been sung
“Ned came up to see the wall and brought the concertina, which nobody had asked for. We went through it twice. He says I sing like a man lifting stone. It seemed the right way to sing it.”
Abide With Me
A Regal Zonophone 78 of Father’s, kept in its paper sleeve in the sideboard
“Every band in the North knows it, and every band in the North plays it at the end of something. Father stands up for it, even when it is only the gramophone.”
Salut d’Amour
Bought new in Oldham, for no reason I could give the man in the shop
“Elgar wrote it for Alice as an engagement present, and sold it to the publisher outright for next to nothing. Everybody has done well out of it since except Elgar. Penny says that is the most engineering thing she has ever heard. I have not asked what she means.”
Ye Banks and Braes
Bought in Blackburn the spring before last, on the strength of hearing her once on the Home Service
“She was a Lancashire lass, from Blackburn, and worked the telephones before anybody let her sing. She died on the eighth of this month, forty-one years old. The announcer read it out as if it were the shipping forecast, which I suppose is the only way to read it. I have played this every night since. Charlie leaves the room for nothing else, but he stays for this.”
Colonel Bogey
Florrie’s, borrowed in 1946 and never asked for back
“Black Dyke are from Queensbury, over the tops on the Yorkshire side, and every other band in the Pennines would sooner lose to anyone else. Alford was a Marines bandmaster, and the tune is meant to be a golfer whistling instead of shouting “fore”. The words the lads put to it in 1940 will not go on this card. Florrie knows all of them.”
Nimrod
Second-hand from the music shop in Manchester, the variation before it worn half away
“Nimrod was Elgar’s friend Jaeger, who told him the truth about his music when nobody else would. Jäger is German for hunter; Nimrod was the mighty hunter. It is a joke, and then it is the slowest, kindest thing ever written for a friend. The side starts on the variation before, which is worn to a hiss, so I set the needle down where the strings come in.”
Ma Bonny Lad / The Keel Row
Sent by Penny, with a note that said only “for the evenings”
“Two Tyneside songs on one side, the first slow and the second at a trot. Penny sent it in the week after the news, without a word about why. That is how Penny does things, and I have learnt not to thank her for them in so many words, because she only changes the subject.”
The book
A Countryman’s Notebook, 1953. Paperback · 160 pages in colour · 7½ × 9¼ in · £24.99 · Buy the book
The Sunday post
A letter from the cottage every Sunday: the week’s pages from the journal, the glass, and whatever Charlie has been up to. Sign up for the Sunday post.
Write Rufus a letter · Prints · The notice board · The picture house · The wireless · The Sunday post