Hilary Seabrook - writer, podcaster, musician

I don't usually write political blogs, but the ineptitude of the UK government through the unprecedented times of the Covid-19 pandemic is becoming more bizarre.     Out of interest, I looked at UK media to see when the UK began talking about Coronavirus and it turns out that on 24 January 2020, the UK government first created a web page to publish the case statistics for the disease. On 29 January, the first two cases were recorded in York, after two Chinese nationals fell ill, and the first flight returned British nationals from Wuhan. The following day, the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency.     Conspiracy theorists might question the media attention around the announcement of the famously-private Boris Johnson's engagement on 31 January. Meanwhile, who knows what is happening with Brexit? What never seemed a great idea for many of us now seems simply wrong, when we should all be pulling together in our attempts to protect each other fro...

 I have interviewed some amazing people for the first 13 episodes of my podcast, Harmonious World .     Have you listened to any of them? Check them out and tell me what you think in a comment or a review.

 I reviewed Rob Luft's 'Life is the Dancer' on Kind of Jazz . It's a beautiful album.     Listen to the album, then read my review and see if you agree.

One of my favourite albums for 2020 is Maria Schneider's 'Data Lords'. It was an honour to chat with her for Harmonious World .     Schneider has won grammy awards for both jazz and classical recordings and there's an orchestral quality to her writing where she interweaves lines and timbres. Check out the album here .

  Episode 12 of Harmonious World features a conversation with drummer Kenrick Rowe.     You'll have heard him with The Specials, PJ Harvey and LOADS of other jazz, rock and reggae bands.

 My travel-obsessed parents have been longing to get away from their flat and last week I drove them around France, Belgium and Germany.     All in all, it was a pleasant experience, although exhausting.     The constant taking on and off of sun glasses and face masks was annoying, but both were necessary. Mum and Dad at the Menin Gate, Ypres Thew new (replacement) lions guarding the Menin Gate Trier The Mosel valley, through Western Germany, skirting the Luxembourg border The view was the best thing about the hotel in Koblenz Germany does castles better than anyone else Koblenz's Deutsches Eck memorial to a unified Germany Taking me back to Berlin 1990 - pieces of the wall as a memorial in Koblenz

Guitarist Sharon Isbin cannot be put in a classification box - she's a little jazz, classical and Spanish, often all at the same time.     Our conversation for Harmonious World was cut short by the pressures on Sharon's schedule, but we could have gone on for hours!