My old Piano

This may look like an old piano, and yes, it is an old piano - currently sitting near Haymarket Station, Edinburgh - but it has a story:

The piano was given by a Ben Treuhaft, to a neighbouring cafe in exchange for a coffee and a sausage roll, but now the cafe is being evicted by its landlords, so the piano is looking for a new home.

It turns out that Ben Treuhaft, is the son of Jessica Mitford. Though her sisters Unity and Diana were well-known British supporters of Hitler and her father was described as being "one of nature's fascists", Jessica (always known as Decca) renounced her privileged background at an early age and became an adherent of communism.

Author JK Rowling reviewed Mitford's book of letters, Decca, in the Sunday Telegraph.

Rowling stated, "My most influential writer, without a doubt, is Jessica Mitford. When my grand-aunt gave me Hons and Rebels when I was 14, she instantly became my heroine. She ran away from home to fight in the Spanish Civil War, taking with her a camera that she had charged to her father's account. I wished I'd had the nerve to do something like that. I love the way she never outgrew some of her adolescent traits, remaining true to her politics – she was a self-taught socialist – throughout her life. I think I've read everything she wrote. I even called my daughter Jessica Rowling Arantes after her."

In 2013 the singer David Bowie named The American Way of Death as one of his favorite books.

Who knew a piano could have so much history!

I hope everyone has had a good Saturday.