The following correspondence between Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) and Howard Ferguson (1908-1999) was transcribed under the guidance of Professor Stephen Banfield from the originals, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It was used as an aid to his biography, Gerald Finzi, an English Composer(Faber, 1997). Since then it has been suggested that the letters themselves might be of interest on two counts: (i) it is comparatively rare that so much of the two sides of a correspondence has survived; and (ii) the letters give a picture of musical life in England during the years 1926-1956 as seen through the eyes of two musicians.

Thanks for permission to print the letters are due to Professor Banfield; to the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and to Christopher and Nigel Finzi, the sons of Gerald.

The poems by A.E. Housman on pages 186 and 203 of More Poems( Jonathan Cape, 1936), and also the nonsense-poem on page 172, are reprinted by kind permission of the Society of Authors.

The Letters have been printed as they stand in the autographs, except that printed letter-headings have been normalized, and spelling mistakes have been silently corrected. All other editorial matter is enclosed within square brackets. I am most grateful to Hugh Cobbe for reading through the typescript and making some invaluable suggestions, and to Catherine Walters for her expert typing.