Several myths still adhere to the life, work and reputation of the English composer Havergal Brian, though some of the more unlikely statistics are not mythical at all but plain facts. He really did compose 33 symphonies (the first now being lost and discounted from the ‘official’ canon of 32); the majority of them were written at an age to which most other composers of note never lived, let alone produced some of their most significant music; and the celebrated ‘Gothic’ (No 1) is probably with justice regarded as the largest symphony ever written.