Adapted from the Unthanks version, “The Magpie” was recorded at home with multi-tracked Celtic harp, hammered dulcimer, classical guitar, low whistle, shruti box and voice. We have a gang of resident magpies here who spend a lot of time either battling the local crows or pecking at the sealant from our windows and conservatory, but they are welcome all the same. Thanks are due once again to my olde school chum, Alan Tomlinson, for the title page magpie painting and two of the other artworks featured in the video. As a boy Alan kept a pet magpie around the same time as I fledged a young, abandoned rook I found in the local graveyard.
