Musical memory

There is a piece of tradional folk music, called Portsmouth that always gives me goose bumps, makes my solar plexus ache, and overwhelms me with a bittersweet feeling of intense happiness and intense sadness. I love folk music, especially Celtic, but no other piece has the same impact.

I first heard it when I was a child at primary school when it was the music for the credits at the end of a drama series. I'd forgotten it until I heard it again recently on a Mike Oldfield album.

I immersed myself in it one day – played it over and over – and had a vision of dancing with girls in white dresses, sunshine, trees and laughter and then the sounds of horses being riden though the trees and a feeling of dread.