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Yes, Liz, I meant that, though English (and from the South, North ~ not East ~ Cheam actually), I just hear people's voices as expressions of themselves (within the parameter of given accent of course.) After a long time of teaching English in Frankfurt my own voice has lost most of the characteristics (near-London quasi-cockney) it used to have, to the extent that two rather affected English ladies whom I met on holiday in Cornwall in the 80s were sure that I was American, because my sound didn't fit in with their preconceptions (I certainly do not sound American). I do not have a class-connotation-laden reaction to accent. I might even no longer recognize a person's "class" in Britain if I went there, things have changed so much. Of course, my cousin Jennifer has an upper-class sort of drawl she picked up at girls' high school (in the 50s), but I believe this "toff" voice is fairly rare now (& anyone can imitate it.) I don't think it's essential to reading poems for oneself that the accent of the poet is reproduced, though in the case of Scots, where the orthography suggests it, I try to reproduce that sound in a generic way; I'm probably missing a lot by just very seldom hearing UK voices at all nowadays. One thing distinguishes me from you: I don't have a "homecoming" feeling when I hear people from the South, perhaps because that accent seems to have changed so much. It's that estuary <ostranenie> effect, as far as I'm concerned. cheers Martin