But in cities like Portland and Nashville after the gig is finished I’ve been lucky enough to find good music to listen to.  (Thank you Jan for driving me round the edges of Portland!)  And i have been knocked out by the bands, and especially,  given what I have been writing about, the women. There are women out there with fabulous voices, great action on the guitar and such stage presence. And it has made me think deeply about Sacred Hearts and how relatively recently it has been that women have the freedom and the respect to be appreciated and noticed as musicians and public performers

In my convent in Sacred Hearts women sung because they were praising God. But what was clear to me researching the book is that they also sung because they loved music and many of them have fabulous voices. They would never be allowed to perform outside the convent, as at the time I am writing it was simply not a respectable job for a well bred woman.

So, as I sat in those bars in Portland and heard Tama belting out Stormy Monday I just wanted to raise a glass to how far history has  brought us

If you know any women out there who like to sing get them to read Sacred Hearts to find out how the managed to subvert the rules,  and then listen to what they sounded like on the podcasts.  You will not  be disappointed

And if you happen to live near Brighton in England , then come to St Batholomews church on May 3rd and hear the book being dramatised with myself and actresses and a whole choir of women who five hundred years ago, might have been nuns.! It will be something. I can promise you.

On Monday I did a great gig in Ben Mcnally’s books In Toronto, but in a huge itlaian restaurant, where of course people yelled and shouted, as italians love to do.  I had brought a cold stowed away in my luggage from London and I had a voice that sounded deep enough to be the only y magnificent. Musica Secreta recorded all the lovelist bits of music which are in the book and ther do indeed have the voices of angels. A real soundtrack of its own. There are samples of it on podcasts and the web site and you can buy the Cd on a link from my site to theirs.  Music Secreta are  women who have given their lives to delve deep into history and bring alive the sounds of women ’s voices as they were 500 yars ago.  They are also enormous fun to work with.

Me – I croak and swallow throat lozenges and with luck some kind of voice will return.,  Otherwise I’ll give the seagulls a run for their money when I hit the ferry out to Victoria island tomorrow. At Cadboro books for anyone local…..

Thanks to you all for your blogs. It makes a real difference to feel one is not alone, even when the hotel room is  empty.   Sarah