"The amount of literature on Takemitsu in languages other than Japanese is still relatively small, and any addition to it is welcome; but this book is especially so. It places at the English-speaking reader's disposal, in a superbly idiomatic and readable translation, an important resource to which, to date, only Japanese readers have had access: the fruits of over 20 hours of interviews with the composer's widow Mrs Asaka Takemitsu, conducted between 2002 and 2004 for the booklet accompanying the Complete Takemitsu Edition CD recordings. At first sight, it might seem a little odd to hail a book of informal interviews as an important historical source on the composer, but - as anyone who has met her will testify - Asaka-san is no ordinary interviewee. Her mind is razor-sharp, and her memory extraordinary: she remembers exactly, for example, the names of the three antibiotics with which Takemitsu was treated for tuberculosis in 1953, or the monthly rent of the flat into which she and her husband moved the following year. Such infallible powers of recall make this book not only an important primary source on Takemitsu, but a kind of fascinating oral history of post-war Japanese life in general. We learn here, for example, how many cinemas there were in Kamakura in the 1950s, or why Senzoku-Ike was called 'NHK Symphony Village'. The credit for such covering so much ground is due in no small measure to Asaka-san's interviewers, Tetsuo Ohara and Mitsuko Ono, who are masterly at drawing out answers to questions of interest not only to specialists, but to the general reader as well. If, for instance, you've ever wondered whether Takemitsu preferred white bread or baguettes, or which brand of yoghurt he liked for breakfast, then this is definitely the book for you. Highly recommended."