Geoffrey Norris: not dead at all

The most cringe-making arts press release of recent times, if not ever, came last week from publishers Chester Music. "Composer Geoffrey Norris dies aged 69," read the email subject field. What they meant to announce, in fact, was the sad death of Geoffrey Burgon, who wrote the theme music for the famous Brideshead TV adaptation, for the Chronicles of Narnia films, and for the TV version of Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Whereas Geoffrey Norris, classical music critic of the Daily Telegraph, remains, happily, very much with us. Eventually, a further email arrived from Chester. "It has been a long night. Please accept my sincere apologies for mis-typing the title of this email, sent earlier this afternoon." Long dark night of the soul, I'm sure.