The secret woodland show that has the arty elite flocking

by · Australian Financial Review

Jane CornwellContributor
Apr 8, 2026 – 5.00am

It’s a quarter to midnight in a field in Sussex and around 30 of us are being serenaded from deep inside a patch of blossoming hawthorn by a nightingale. The invisible bird’s song is astoundingly complex, and all the more dramatic for the verdant setting.

After several minutes, the silvery torrent stops and another voice fills the silence – the rich baritone of folk singer Sam Lee. “One morning in May I spied a young couple; they were making their way ... ” he sings, reprising a traditional tune from 1905 called The Nightingale.

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Jane CornwellContributorJane Cornwell is a London-based contributor.

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