Editor’s Note: Malcolm Williamson lived in Rooks Nest House in the late nineteen eighties.

Anthony Meredith and Paul Harris

There’s something exhilarating about Malcolm Williamson, a young Australian full of promise, coming to London when it was still in the grip of miserable post-war austerity and writing some of the most exuberant and affirmative music of the 1950s and 60s. He was also an excellent performer as pianist and organist. When Williamson died in 2003 he had been Master of the Queen’s Music since 1975 but had become neglected as he defaulted on commissions. Since then things have improved on CD and there are many recordings.

It cannot have been easy to encompass Williamson’s richly diverse life-story and Meredith and Harris have needed 500 pages. The saga moves from Australia to London where Williamson soon made an impact. By 1955 he was given superlative testimonials from Benjamin Britten and Lennox Berkeley. Twelve years later the music critic of The Times called him ‘the most talented composer of his generation’ and when he returned to Australia he was acclaimed as their pre-eminent national composer.

Those tributes to Williamson are more important than the problems associated with his way of life – chronic alcoholism, financial difficulties, and manic tension over deadlines. He composed like someone possessed and his generosity in working with handicapped children was legendary.