Neil Horner

I was born in 1965 in Sheffield. I read medicine and zoology at university and teach and act as examiner for A level biology. I have been married to Zoe for eight years and we have two children, Rebekah (5) and Joel (2). Before writing reviews for Musicweb, I contributed to the Rough Guide to Rock. Some of my likes and dislikes are as follows:-

Pro:-

Music - Sibelius, Nielsen and most other Nordic/Baltic music (e.g. Tubin, Tormis); the English pastoral tradition; Celtic (especially Breton) and Nordic folk music; ECM style jazz/eclecticism; the classical/folk tradition of central and eastern Europe and the Balkans, e.g. Bartok, Kodaly, more recently Skalkottas, and their sources; twentieth century American "classical" music; other accessible but genuine modern music (classical or otherwise), e.g. Dave Heath, Aphex Twin (I could go on and on here!)

Writers - Hesse, CS Lewis, David Adam (vicar of Holy Island), Tim Robinson, Barry Lopez, Desmond Seward (especially The Dancing Sun)…..

Places - Iceland, Norway, Israel, western Brittany, "Green" Spain, the Burren and Aran Islands, Cyprus…..

Other - Sheffield Wednesday FC, Belgian beer, English gin!

Contra:-

Music - purists, elitists, snobs, narrow/closed minds.

Other - abortion, cloning/GM, the "rat race", the American military-industrial complex and its all pervading tentacles, fundamentalists of all ilks, superficiality…..