Since childhood I have had an ardent love for the shipping forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4. I do believe I’m not alone in this and many more of us than first appear, have been soothed by that seafaring repetition, always followed at midnight by the very distinctly old world melody of ‘Sailing By.’  Nowadays it especially reminds me of late into the early hours studying or painting sessions when I was a student, with its lulling predictability almost reprimanding me for not being asleep! I don’t listen to it often enough these days.

Stay tuned and I’ll do my best to attach a link to the Shipping Forecast on YouTube soon, so if you haven’t heard it and don’t know what I mean, you too can become acquainted with one of our great British institutions!