Everything you always wanted to know about classical music but were afraid to ask

Novelist, essayist, painter, poet, composer. Oh yes, and pianist: Stephen Hough does all of these things very well — and one of them superlatively.

Most of us will know Hough as a dazzling but thoughtful concert pianist, at home with almost all repertoire, but with a special affinity for 19th- and early 20th- century works. He recently played a gilded royal piano at the Proms — and before that published his first extended work of fiction. But don’t call him a Renaissance man. He flinches — and points out he’s not much cop at maths or science. That makes the rest of us feel only marginally better.

A pianist has to do something while on the road — all those flights and lonely nights in distant hotel bedrooms. Once you’ve mastered the notes and feel secure about the performances ahead, how to fill the time? Answer: write another book.

Rough Ideas has the feeling of a work  written in snatches.