For most, pottering is a gentle way of going about tasks or things that you may want to do without any driven aim. It often applies to the elderly and I am getting older now. It sounds delightful and gives the idea of a person contented with themselves and their lives. You might even call it a kind of un-earnest mindfulness resulting from an absorption in the present. I like the idea of pottering even if I’m not that good at it. Sometimes I feel that contentment, but often not – there is always another thing to pursue – to realise.

This brings me to a particular personal meaning of the word pottering because I wrote so much music for Potter and pottering had an entirely different meaning. It was full of excitement, fear, fulfilment and pain. It was a time when I wrenched myself apart in my attempt to produce music for the greatest of stories. It has left my music famous and has made Potter the thing that I am most widely known for.

So my relative pottering since then has been endangered by frustration that so few notice my little attempts at creating books, CDs and getting involved in performing folk music. But that kind of pottering requires the contentment of doing things for their own sake. Just that!