Love and Music Volume One

This is a joint autobiography of two singers whose lives have run in parallel from 1961 until the present day. It is based on the couple's letters and diaries. They met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1961 and married in 1963. Love and Music - Volume One illustrates the training, dedication and grit that preparing for a life in the musical theatre entails. It also shows the enjoyment that such a life brings not only to the audience but to the performers themselves. As they say: "It's a great life if you don't weaken, but if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, get out!!!"

The author, Barbara Kendall-Davies, was a professional singer from 1965 until 2012. She is also a prolific painter, having studied at the Birmingham College of Art after she left school. Her first job was in the Wardrobe Department of the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. However, she always sang and she was encouraged to take lessons. She won first prize at her first competitive music festival and began to study seriously with a view to a professional career. In 1961, while working on the news staff of ATV Midlands, she won the Premier Soprano class and the Victory Shield at the Birmingham Music Festival and applied for a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She was successful, and during the first week, she met the baritone, Christopher Davies. They married in 1963 and later founded the Apollo Group of London. In 1995, Barbara was asked to write a monograph of the French 19th century singer, Pauline Viardot Garcia, and this led to her becoming a published writer in France and later in the UK. Her marriage to Chris lasted fifty-five years and their son, Giles Davies, followed them into the profession. She is now based in Jersey and devotes her time to writing. The sequel to Love and Music - Volume One entitled On with the Show will soon follow. Her debut novel, Truth Will Find a Way, was published by Austin Macauley in 2019.