“What people don’t appreciate about the ukulele is it’s easy to play but very difficult to spell.”

That quip stood out in an enjoyable book I started recently, The Uke of Wallington. It is an autobiographical account of Mark Wallington’s journey around the UK by foot and public transport, touring open mic nights with his ukulele. The book is charming and funny but rather short on details. It could all be made up, although there appears to be video evidence to the contrary on the author’s website.

The quote is attributed to an anonymous violinist on the Isle of Wight but it sounds so familiar. I did a search on Google but only found it, unattributed, at the top of a couple of pages from Pocklington and District U3A. Those pages don’t have a date so could well have been put together after Wallington’s book was released in 2012.

If I use it and anyone asks me, I’ll attribute it to Wallington but let me know if you can dig up roots from further back.