Talked out of becoming a professional musician when he left Cambridge University in 1963, Basil Howitt pursued a successful career in academia for 15 years. At the age of 38, Howitt finally hit the road as a freelance cellist, working with many orchestras and ensembles.
Writing is Howitt's third career, which he began with a series of lighthearted pieces on the freelance lifestyle for Classical Music magazine. These led to his enthusiastically received first book Life in a Penguin Suit, published by the Manchester Camerata. At the same time he began steeping himself in the lives of the great composers for his popular pre-concert talks in Manchester UK, discovering that his audiences were sometimes more fascinated by noggins and nookie than ninth-cords and natural harmonics.
Howitt has also written for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and Private Eye.