- He was appointed OBE in 2002, made a Knight of the Order of the White Rose in Finland, a country about whose opera he enthused, and was an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music.
- He read history at Christ Church, Oxford, and did his National Service with the Education Corps. He had a brief career with the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis. During this time he began moonlighting as a journalist, using his middle name as a surname to avoid incurring his employer's wrath.
- He was an influential and entertaining opera critic. He was the editor of Opera magazine from 1986 to 1999, and, at various times, opera critic of Harpers & Queen, The Spectator, and The Times.
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