Summoned by Bells

 I wake up early in the morning, as is my wont. In no particular hurry to confront another day, I switch on Radio 4 and am greeted by the sound of church bells. I had forgotten it was Sunday.

There is something quintessentially English about the sound of church chimes ringing out over the fields on a crisp December morning, and English bell ringers have no equals in the world. And what English child does not know by heart the old nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons listing the bells of the great London churches?

I read somewhere that if a person from the Middle Ages were to be transported forward to our time, the only man-made sound he or she would recognise would be the sound of bells.

But you can have too much of a good thing and too much for me is about 30 seconds!