My husband, the musician and author Basil Howitt, has died aged 71. His first published book was Life in a Penguin Suit (1993), which comprised vignettes based on his experiences as an orchestral musician. There followed many articles and three books on composers' love lives. His last book was Walter and his Daughters, biographies of the musical Carroll family of Manchester, commissioned by the Walter Carroll Trust. Based on extensive archive material, it brings to life Manchester and its music a century ago.
Born in Sale, Basil was a chorister at Manchester Cathedral from 1951 to 1954. He took up the cello, and attended Chetham's school of music, where he became head boy. A choral exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge, followed.
In 1962, he graduated in English Literature, then taught, first in a school then as a liberal studies lecturer in further education colleges. He set up music societies, played, conducted, sang and inspired active music-making among colleagues and students. He sang in the BBC Northern Singers and played in numerous chamber orchestras and ensembles.
In 1978 he gave up teaching to become a professional musician, in the Northern Ballet Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata. It was through the latter that he arrived in the Pyrénées-Orientales in southern France. The pianist Moura Lympany initiated the Festival de la Musique et du Vin which ran for several summers in the 1980s and 90s in the village of Rasiguères. As a dedicated bon vivant and gourmet, Basil fell in love with the area. In 1991 he bought an ancient "maison de village" looking out on vineyards.
He also took up cycling and ran several marathons, travelled around the UK as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and tutored enthusiastic amateur musicians on chamber music courses.
He remained active in spite of his worsening sight and adapted his writing skills to the internet, where his articles proved popular. He wrote on a range of issues, but always waxed most lyrical on local cuisine and wines.
I survive him.