Thanks for posting this!  A banjo-nerdy question if you don't mind:  The banjo in the photo looks like a Clifford Essex Paragon.  Was this the banjo she played in the duet?

I remember Bert and Myrtle they were lovely people and excellent banjo players. I used to see and hear them, at the meetings of the Westminster Banjo Circle, formerly the London Banjo Club which were held in the Abbey Rooms but moved to the Old Rose on Medlock Street in the 1990s when it became the British Banjo Circle. I was playing the banjo with Paul Whyman at the time and used to drive down to his house in Norfolk from Sheffield, where we would run through a few tunes before driving down to the Old Rose the following day and afterwards, driving back to Sheffield.We were both very enthusiastic about the banjo in those days.

Thanks, Barbara.  I was asking about this particular model of Clifford Essex banjo, the Paragon. It seems it was not favored by either British or American players for playing the repertoire and style now known as "classic banjo". Other models, less expensive ones were preferred. I've played only a few Paragons and I found the tone and response similar to each other but quite different from other Clifford Essex models. So I was surprised to see it in the photo.

Why did the critic wish she had not?