Author celebrates musicians’ mettle in new French horn novel
Claire Jackson, Thursday, August 7, 2025
Girl meets horn: Solo is published by The Book Guild
‘You’ve heard of “girl meets boy”? This isn’t that. It’s “girl meets horn”,’ says the blurb to Solo, Caroline Swinburne’s new novel about a female French horn player. The book follows a leading orchestral musician who abandons her instrument after a disastrous solo propels her into crisis. Redemption comes in the form of mentorship, and helping a talented teenager follow their own dreams of becoming an international horn player. It’s a plot that will no doubt sound familiar to many CM readers, and Swinburne has based the narrative arc on her own experiences and from interviews with musicians.
‘Many years ago, I attended a concert of The Planets, in a large and prestigious venue, televised live to a global audience,’ explains Swinburne. ‘Venus begins with a very exposed solo horn part, and I was sitting close enough to the stage to notice that the musician was visibly shaking. To my relief, the performance was by no standards a “disaster”; on the contrary, it was note-perfect, except that the horn player’s breath was trembling very slightly, resulting in the tiniest, barely perceptible, tinge of vibrato; I doubt anyone but a horn-player would have noticed. But I felt the performance was hovering on a knife-edge, and the story could have ended very differently. The episode reminded me rather too pertinently of some of my own less-than-comfortable experiences on less eminent stages. And I started to wonder what happens when things go wrong on an epic scale, for someone for whom the instrument is not only their love but their livelihood.’
‘I wondered what happens when things go wrong on an epic scale, for someone for whom the instrument is not only their love but their livelihood’
That person is Solo’s Cate, who, after the event, retrains as a language teacher, reinvents herself online, and travels the world. Ten years later, after her mother’s death, Cate returns to her Midlands hometown, where she meets Sarah, a talented young horn player with no professional training. Sarah dreams of making music her career, but her family can’t afford a decent instrument or lessons. Cate is the only one who can help. When a local amateur orchestra announces a concert featuring the piece that once destroyed Cate’s career, Sarah’s big break is at stake – will Cate be able to face her past?
As she spoke to musicians as part of the research, Swinburne says that her premise ‘clearly sent cold shivers down quite a few eminent musical backs’. The author wanted to explore how such an episode could be overcome. Swinburne’s own musical life refocussed attention from the French horn to the piano, and she now runs a teaching practice in south-east London. ‘I never planned to become a piano teacher, but I absolutely love it,’ she says, ‘These days I only teach adults, ranging from beginners to advanced players. My pupils come from all walks of life. A few have played since childhood, but many are returning to music after a long break, and some have always wanted to learn but never had the opportunity. For a few, music is the day job in some shape or form, but for the vast majority, it will always be a hobby. My students commit time, money and emotional energy, because they are united in a love of music and a desire to play as beautifully as they possibly can.’
An underlying theme to the book is gender parity among brass players. French horn ensemble Cor8 – a group of young female and non-binary London freelance players – will perform at Swinburne’s private book launch. The ensemble’s name is a play on the term ‘quorate’; which is synonymous with diplomacy and equality – qualities that sit at the heart of the ethos of the ensemble.
‘Youth orchestra horn sections tend to be gender-balanced, or even predominantly female, while music colleges have a contingent of around 30 to 40 percent,’ explains Swinburne. ‘But a 2021 UK-wide study of 40 British orchestras and 44 brass bands found only that only 15.7 per cent of professional horn players were female or non-binary (although women now fill half of all professional horn-playing roles in Scotland). This means that young players fresh out of college can still be a minority in an otherwise male professional section, and this can be challenging. Things are vastly better than they used to be, however, there’s still a way to go.’
Solo is published by The Book Guild on 28 September (ISBN 9781835742877)