"If you don't know many you still know more than I likely do," she says with a smile and a laugh in her voice. These are the things it is easy to tease herself about and so she does, all part of trying to stay in a good humour in the strangest of circumstances.

Sybil sits and slides the two records over. The Gershwin seems to be a collection of songs along with Rhapsody in Blue, and the Billie Holiday album was live at Carnegie Hall. "I remember my mother telling of us Carnegie Hall. They were building it when she moved to London, I would love to see it."