I have just heard that the £20 note is to be replaced, removing my claim to fame.

I once stayed in the house on the back of the Elgar £20 note, which pictures the back of Worcester Cathedral and the huge, gorgeous house next door to it. In 1999, I volunteered at the Three Choirs Festival there in return for board and lodgings and free access to all concerts and events, and they put me up in the famous house, which had just been renovated to a fabulous standard.

It was there that I met Kit and the Widow, who had also been billeted there. Well, I say “met,” more meant, “sat on a sofa listening to them for hours.”

Elgar must have been in circulation for ten years, I suppose. Instead he’ll have to make do with the statue of him in Hereford.