A big part of my life despite my entire lack of musical ability (bar some ill-fated experiments with a saxophone when I was twelve). Happy to say I’m out of my snobbery phase – I think the only important thing is that it makes you *feel* something. And if you can dance to it, even better.

• Here’s my radio station on LastFM in case you want to voyage inside my music library: www.last.fm/listen/user/Sajarina

• I’ve made a Spotify playlist of songs that I associate with some of the themes and the mood of the Magpie story I’m writing at the moment. There’s some good stuff on there, from Siouxsie, The Shins, Patrick Wolf, Talking Heads, Ladytron, PJ Harvey, Magazine and the Dead Kennedys. Have a listen here: Magpie Writing Songs.

• Below you can have a listen to the playlist I made after playing in the Free Music Archive. It’s a wondrous place full of interesting and unusual audio all free to download, from indiepop to something called psychfolk to historical recordings. Seriously recommend paying a visit.