A Devil to Play - by Jasper Rees (Paperback)

About the Book

"High Fidelity" meets "Touching the Void" in the improbably heroic adventure of an amateur French horn player who quite literally blows himself back into life again.--Bob Geldof, songer/activist.

Book Synopsis

A charming and deeply funny memoir of musical obsession, A Devil to Play is the story of Jasper Rees, a man who unearths his childhood French horn, and begins a quixotic but obsessively serious challenge: to play a Mozart concerto--alone--for a paying audience within one year's time. It's an endearing, inspiring tale of perseverance and achievement, relayed masterfully, one side-splittingly off-key note at a time.

From the Back Cover

In the days before his fortieth birthday, London-based journalist Jasper Rees traded his pen for a French horn that had been gathering dust in the attic for more than twenty-two years and, on a lark, played it at the annual festival of the British Horn Society. Despite an embarrassingly poor performance, the experience inspired Rees to embark on a daunting, bizarre, and ultimately winning journey: to return to the festival in one year's time and play a Mozart concerto--solo--to a large paying audience.

A Devil to Play is the true story of an unlikely midlife crisis spent conquering eighteen feet of wrapped brass tubing widely regarded as the most difficult instrument in the world to master--an endearing, inspiring tale of perseverance and achievement, relayed masterfully, one side-splittingly off-key note at a time.

Review Quotes

"High Fidelity meets Touching the Void in the improbably heroic adventure of an amateur French horn player who quite literally blows himself back to life again. The middle-aged man's rueful riposte to all that self-deluding, chirpy chick-lit tripe, it is very very good, very very funny, and horribly true." - Bob Geldof

"The strength and reach of Rees's enthusiasm carry the day. . . . A fine book." - Daily Telegraph (London)

"A marvellous memoir of a year's obsession that should be read by anyone gripped by illogical compulsion." - The Economist

"An appealing book, both for musicians and for those who abandoned music long ago after childhood battles with an instrument. . . . [A] humorous paean to a humble bit of brass." - Financial Times (London)

"Rees is both a buoyant and impassioned writer. His language is fleet, efficient and full of detail. His horn fixation animates even a casual trip to the movies. . . . The scene of him standing onstage with the very horn he had played as a child gives off a gratifying, burnished glow." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Reese records his journey with impeccable research and sharp wit, weaving together his first lessons as a youth with those of adulthood, all the while reliving the horn's along history in a musical and literary achievement." - Craig Brown, Booklist (starred review)