Victoria sponge should be scoffed to the accompaniment of music by Gilbert and Sullivan. This is one of many imaginative and entertaining opinions Lev Parikian puts forward in his latest book. Before I learned that he’s an orchestral conductor and author, I used to follow, on Twitter, Lev’s live birdsong broadcasts, for which he’s widely known and admired. He appears to be the kind of person who’s always up for a challenge, whether it’s patrolling the hedgerows while hoping the local chaffinches are in good voice, or writing a set of essays on random topics.