Love hits all the right notes

Few can have done such extensive fieldwork into the matter of men than artist, writer and fashion-designer Molly Parkin.

At 80 years old she has amassed a list of lovers so awe-inspiringly impressive, including John Mortimer and George Melly that even Don Juan might feel pushed to match it. Now Parkin (with the help of pianist Simon Wallace) has set a number of her poems to music. She will be performing these next week.

It was singer Gill Manly who proposed that the pair should work together after reading Parkin's poetry and realising how closely it chimed with the themes of her own album, The Lies of Handsome Men.

'The Lies of Handsome Men', Southbank Centre, London SE1 (southbankcentre.co.uk) on 21 December at 1pm