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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud,

where each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask their authors to read them aloud.

I'm Oscar Edmondson, head of podcasts at The Spectator.

This week, composer James McMillan reads his diary on the beautiful music of football.

Sebastian Morello tells us about the deep connection between hunting and Christianity.

Amy Valenz explains how voodoo fuels Haiti's gang culture.

The Spectator's literary editor, Sam Leith, reviews the Varago Book of Friendship, and from the arts pages, the spectator's theatre critic Lloyd Evans, writes about a new play on the last days of Liz Truss and also about Betty and Joan, which he says includes brutal and brilliant portraits of Betty Davis and Joan Crawford.

Up first, James McMillan. I was in Sweden a few weeks ago,

where my music was presented in Stockholm in the most recent international composer festival.

One of the orchestral works performed was my football-themed 11. 11 players, melodies of 11 notes, chords of 11 pitches,

and various football chants woven into the fabric of the score.

I'm not the first composer obsessed with the beautiful game.

Bohuslav Martinus Half Time, written in 1924, was inspired by the supporters of his team,

Sparta Prague. And more recently, there have been bold examples by English composers, Mark Anthony

Turnage, who worked chance for his beloved arsenal into his orchestral piece momentum,

and Benedict Mason, in whose opera playing away, even the ball sings an aria.

But the most sustained composerly football obsession is found in the work of Dmitri Shostakovich,

who was a qualified referee. He wrote two overtly

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