Sir Edward Elgar

Composer Sir Edward Elgar could be found on back of the Bank of England’s £20 notes until 2010.

He was the man who claimed that his pet rabbit wrote songs with him - and also sent a little girl out with a butterfly net to catch notes for his next composition.

Marjorie Wallace, founder of the campaigning charity 'SANE', loves Elgar's music but suggests that to achieve its sublime beauty he had to struggle all his life against depression and despair.

Joining presenter Humphrey Carpenter for this investigation of the 'Enigma' man is Elgar's biographer Jerrold Northrop-Moore.

Producer: Peter Everett

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2004.