Fand IncWessex Press

Peter Thompson’s latest composition takes the form of another Suite for piano, the thirteenth in the series to date. Written in May, Suite no 13: ‘Greenwood Tales’ tells of moods and images glimpsed, fancifully and briefly, from a Maytime of bright blossom and burgeoning greenery. The music suits pianists of Grade 6–8 standard.

Also written by Peter Thompson, though not so recently, is a little part-song for women’s choir (SSA voices) called The Moon. The music of this piece was recently rediscovered: composed back in 1984, it was typeset ten years later and readied for publication back in 1994. However, copyright issues relating to the poem meant that it could not be issued at the time. Rediscovered by accident just recently, the former copyright problems no longer existed, so the piece is finally being issued on the fortieth anniversary of its composition! As for the piece itself, it came about after Peter Thompson was introduced to the director of a ladies’ choir in St Albans, The Laurel Singers. She informally asked for a new piece for the choir to perform, and Peter obliged.

The Doggy Tales of Arnold

Wearing his writing rather than his composing hat back in the 1990s, Carey Blyton came up with a series of ten children’s stories, collectively entitled The Doggy Tales of Arnold, about a small dog with a massively outsize bark. Despite the fact that one of the stories was turned into a TV programme narrated by the much loved Willie Rushton (this was one of his last pieces of TV work before his unexpected death), the stories never found a publisher during Carey’s lifetime. This changed in 2018 when Austin Macauley Publishers decided to publish, in a single volume, the two of the stories that had already been fully illustrated by Maurice Stevens, Carey’s collaborator. There is an interesting account of the background to these stories on the official Carey Blyton website.

As of mid-2024, however, Austin Macauley Publishers relinquished the rights to Arnold back to Carey Blyton’s estate, and as a consequence the existing book can now be sold by Fand Music Press. It is available in both paperback and hardback formats. September update: The ebook (supplied as a PDF file) is also now available once again.