Summer holiday with a legendary composer

My wife Rachel's uncle is the noted American composer Ned Rorem and we will often make a visit in the summer to his charming home on Nantucket.

Nantucket is a fascinating mixture of a meticulously clipped, old village spatchcocked onto a wild island 40 miles out in the Atlantic. A typical day involves a bike adventure out to a remote beach - where you are left with the fascinating choice of the placid, Sound side - or the tumultuous ocean side. Either way there is plenty of room to let the frenetic density of city-living dissolve.

Ned is a thought provoking host ...and another fascinating mixture. He is both an eloquent, incisive author of diaries , essays on music ,art and many other topics and a moving composer of art songs, operas, chamber music and many other genres of music.

All his linguistic ability and creative spirit can all come together to produce a daring and scintillating game of Scrabble on a quiet summer night.