Bob and Doris Ling. Recollections of East Suffolk Life

A revised and enlarged edition of the personal account of this popular couple who became an essential part of the life of Snape Maltings Concert Hall and the Music School. They were loved by all who knew them, from Benjamin Britten to the shyest young student. There are only minor changes to the original text (now out of print) but there is new material, notably extracts from letters to Britten and Imogen Holst written by Doris Ling now conserved in archive at the Red House as well as some newly published photographs from the Ling family collection.

Bob had started work at the Maltings as a fifteen year old by in 1938. Life was not easy--when the Maltings closed, Bob lost his job and the couple worked as gravediggers in Snape and also had a milk round. In 1971 their lives changed when they were taken on to help out backstage at the Concert Hall. Three months later they were in charge and remained there for the next twenty years, becoming an inseparable part of the Aldeburgh Music Festival. They did everything--from changing the scenery and cleaning the loos to welcoming the Queen Mother. Both were natural storytellers and their voices live on the page, a fascinating record of life in East Suffolk as much as the early years of the Festival.