Douglas,
I first met Dr Ashfield as a young organ scholar who had taken on conducting the now defunct Chatham Dockyard Choral Society.
Dr Ashfield was patron of the society then. -A true gentlemen, he attended every concert I directed and gave me valuable advice...
One fond memory I have (was during the interval of a concert of Haydn works), he gave me a lesson on baton gripping for the faster movements of Handel's Messiah! -having jokingly admitted he frequently lost his whilst in front of the Rochester Choral Society!
Another occasion, I happened to mention that I also directed the Faversham Choral Society, to which Dr Ashfield's eyebrows raised....yes, he'd heard of them, yes, he directed them, and "all the way through the rehearsal all the basses did was bloody talk, talk, talk!"
I have his 3 minitures for organ (Air, Lament and Caprice) -they form great recital pieces; and recently my choirmen performed his introit 'God be in my head' ATB at a Choral Evensong at St Mary's Priory, Abergavenny.
keep me up to date with the book..a much missed man...
bw
(Dr) Peter Litman