KATE KENNEDY is one of the foremost critics of twentieth-century music of her generation. She has published widely, including The Silent Morning: Culture and the Armistice, 1918, Literary Britten, Lives of Houses and Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney (shortlisted by the Royal Philharmonic Society for their 2021 awards). She is a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-writing, Director of the Centre for the Study of Women Composers, Director of the Museum of Music History, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

This wonderful book is a love-letter to cellos and cellists, a gripping quest across Europe for lost and sometimes miraculously re-found instruments, a startling plunge into the dark histories of our times, a meditation and improvisation on music and musicians, and a moving personal story of a cellist who has rediscovered her own gift for playing and with it the central meaning of her life.

KATE KENNEDY is one of the foremost critics of twentieth-century music of her generation. She has published widely, including The Silent Morning: Culture and the Armistice, 1918, Literary Britten, Lives of Houses and Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney (shortlisted by the Royal Philharmonic Society for their 2021 awards). She is a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-writing, Director of the Centre for the Study of Women Composers, Director of the Museum of Music History, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

This wonderful book is a love-letter to cellos and cellists, a gripping quest across Europe for lost and sometimes miraculously re-found instruments, a startling plunge into the dark histories of our times, a meditation and improvisation on music and musicians, and a moving personal story of a cellist who has rediscovered her own gift for playing and with it the central meaning of her life.

KATE KENNEDY is one of the foremost critics of twentieth-century music of her generation. She has published widely, including The Silent Morning: Culture and the Armistice, 1918, Literary Britten, Lives of Houses and Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney (shortlisted by the Royal Philharmonic Society for their 2021 awards). She is a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-writing, Director of the Centre for the Study of Women Composers, Director of the Museum of Music History, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

This wonderful book is a love-letter to cellos and cellists, a gripping quest across Europe for lost and sometimes miraculously re-found instruments, a startling plunge into the dark histories of our times, a meditation and improvisation on music and musicians, and a moving personal story of a cellist who has rediscovered her own gift for playing and with it the central meaning of her life.