Enigma Variation, a Fictional Memoir

When he died in 1934 Edward Elgar had become a national institution, but his musical creativity was long over. This fictional memoir, supposedly written in 1934, takes us back to the years before 1914 when the composer's reputation was at its peak. It tells the story of two young men who went to Hereford as pupils of George Sinclair, the cathedral organist and one of the friends immortalised by Elgar in the 'Enigma Variations'. They find that the composer, ill at ease in the circles to which his socially ambitious wife aspires, enjoys relaxing in the company of young people. Apart from the light thrown on the personality of Elgar, the memoir evokes the atmosphere of a pre-war cathedral city. It is also a love story of an unusual kind.