Released on 1 May 2009 by Ffin Records, Blue Letters from Tanganyika is a piece for orchestra in four movements. The music is inspired by the stories in letters sent home during the 1950s by a young British woman who had been given the task of overseeing schools in an area of East Africa the size of England. Her letters contain stories of life working and travelling in Tanganyika (now Tanzania); the catching and spearing of a crocodile, a walk of several days up into the hills to reach a German convent for dental care, travel by hollowed-out canoe on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi), the exotic wildlife and warm welcome from each African village they visit. Forty years after her return, her son John Hardy was commissioned by the BBC to write this piece for a series of concerts by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The piece was performed five times after scoring highly in an audience poll and broadcast at least four times on BBC Radio 3. This recording is by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Grant Llewellyn. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.