Author
After graduating from Oxford University, Paul taught music (and a little maths) at New College Choir School. While there he created music for a children’s staged version of The Hobbit, approved and attended by J. R. R. Tolkien. A BBC Radio 4 documentary told the story of this venture, the first ever staged Hobbit with music.
A love of the piano led him to perform in a variety of genres – concertos with orchestra, chamber music, solo recitals, even jazz and an evening celebrating the music of David Bowie. As Director of Music for Duchy Opera he conducted many theatre works, including his own opera The Hanging Oak. This involved turning a ghost story by M. R. James into an operatic libretto.
His Passion as told by Mark the Evangelist was first performed in Truro Cathedral and later broadcast on Radio 3 by the BBC Singers. His own choral arrangement of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending was recorded by the Swedish Chamber Choir with violinist Jennifer Pike. He has also enjoyed a long association with The King’s Singers, who have sung his music all over the world
Paul’s book Unheard Melodies is a light-hearted guide to classical music for the non-specialist. His beginner’s piano book (published by OUP) has reached its second edition and sold 80,000 copies to date.
His historical novel Ultramarine (Oct. 2025) is set in 14th century England and draws on his experience teaching in an Oxford choir school, where singing boys have been trained to a high level for the last six hundred years.
