■ CLASSICAL music

can make life sound better, but best-selling novelist Philip Pullman has attacked broadcaster Bobby Seagull for daring to ask fans if they use it in the background. ‘When you were studying for exams, writing essays or just trying to create an environment for learning, what were your best pieces of classical music to listen to?’ asked Seagull, 38, who shot to fame in 2017 after his energetic appearances on University Challenge went viral. Pullman, 75, author of His Dark Materials trilogy, chided him online: ‘That’s not what classical music is for. Treat it with respect.’