Tom Wiggins, Letter Carver & Writer

Marcus Mumford, third from left, makes up the folk four-piece.  Marcus Mumford of indie folk outfit Mumford & Sons hit the headlines earlier this week when he revealed the source of a line featured in a song from the band's latest album.  In an interview with BBC 4's Front Row, he admitted to 'lifting' a line from Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novel, Wolf Hall.  The line features in the band's second album and follow up to their wildly successful 2009 debut, Sigh No More - itself a reference to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.  The title track's opening line begins "serve God, love me and mend", which was a line spoken by Benedick in the Bard's comedy of manners.   Mantel's Wolf Hall won the Booker Prize in 2009 Mumford played down suggestions that their literary influences exceed those of their musical contemporaries, but says references to books appear regularly in their songs, with influences ranging fr...

Sea of Bees - Willis Camille - Wet Boy Regina Spektor - Somedays  Tiny Vipers - Dreamer  Feist - Service Bell Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps Sia - Soon We'll Be Found Joanna Newsom - Does Not Suffice Laura Marling - Blackberry Stone My Brightest Diamond - All Things Unwind 

Few would disagree that 2011 has been an exceptional year for Laura Marling.   Only three weeks in and a Brit Award nomination for Best Female lands on her doormat, followed in its wake by a similar acknowledgement posted from the offices of NME (two prizes she would later go on to win).   Now at album number three, not only has high praise run in parallel with each of the singer’s record releases, but her previous albums have doubled as prize magnets. Her debut, 2007’s Alas I Cannot Swim and last year’s I Speak Because I Can both garnered nominations from the Mercury Prize panel, arguably the UK ’s highest music accolade.   And if PJ Harvey’s Mercury success is anything to go by, more nominations will invariably follow.         Not one to rest on her laurels, last month heralded the release of A Creature I Don’t Know, the singer-songwriter’s third studio album.   Like its predecessors, it was lavished with wide critical acclaim, cementing h...