Sincere thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to send in corrections to The Brompton’s Book. I take it as a sort of encouragement that people are reading and using it, so I’m glad to hear responses. All updates and corrections are being filed, I hope for a second edition one day.

Practical work has resumed in a big way, with cellos coming to shape all around us. Hubert and I have to pick our way carefully into the workshop in the morning. We also have a rather beautiful Grancino cello undergoing a neck reset. Other visiting splendours over the past month include a rare Deconet (hold the arguments, please) and a lovely Panormo. So we’re not short of inspiration.

We’re being joined for a week in March by Emmanuelle Dion-Vermand, another ex-assistant of mine, currently establishing her own business in France. But you know, Twickenham in the early spring is so lovely she couldn’t stay away. So we’re going to work together on a project she has… we need to get some cellos finished and out of the way so that she can find her old bench.