Original title for this,Virginia Astley's last full album,was "Woodlanders" and it contains songs intended for a musical version of the famous Thomas Hardy novel.It also confirms once and for all that Virginia has never really left her own past as she retreads familiar turf.Her last album "All shall be well" used the string quartet from her music college of the late 7Os/early 80s and this time she uses members of the one time Fairground Attraction.Once again there's an apperance by Kate St.John and her Dad,Ted Astley contributes string arrangements.Virginia,in fact,offers the same fare as always,beautiful songs like "It's over now","Where I belong" and "A long long year".On "I know a tune we could sing" she's joined by her daughter Florence,now 4 years older,on what seems to be an unusual subject,that of the world on the aftermath of a nuclear disaster. The title song is Virginia's setting of the W B Yeats poem "He who hath the cloths of Heaven"."Over the edge of the world" and "Nothing is what it seems" are modern fairytales.No instrumentals this time round but its what we've come to expect from a Virginia Astley album,namely a collection of melodic songs with classical sounding accompaniment and that delicious soprano voice like no other on Earth
