When I strike it rich (isn’t their an oil field hiding in my back yard?), I’m going to go to Australia and hear this woman play live. Meanwhile I do enjoy the recordings I own. She’s a wonderful musician.

“It’s a huge drama all the time,” Doherty says. “Our moods are up and down as our reeds are born and die and it’s an awful lot of work. I know that when I was an adolescent and became serious and was making reeds and doing competitions, it must have been very difficult for my parents.

“I must have been very unbearable. It’s definitely to do with the reeds. If you could give me a good reed and tell me, ‘This will last for the rest of your career’, I think I would become a different person overnight.

“Even when looking forward to important concerts, the thought is, ‘Will I have a good reed?’ “

Ever so much more to read … so go … READ!