Last night I was at a lovely concert where Iona Fyfe, who was awarded Scots Singer of the Year at the 2018 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards, sang a broad selection of traditional ballads.  Most of these are not happy stories, people often end up jilted, dead or both!  They are, however, great to listen to.

On Sunday, I will be using a very abridged version of part of the Orkneyinga Saga, which should come with a health warning - there is no happy ending, it is rather bloody and (spoiler alert) the hero ends up dead.