Of Leonor Rivera, Novelist and Martyr of My People Jose Rizal’s Long-Distance Love; My Own Long-Distance Love, English Conductor John Wilson; Eric Coates; and A Song by Rodgers and Hammerstein

How’s this for a coincidence? The man who gave my bonny — then a struggling young conductor of 24 — a wristwatch that belonged to his father was the same man who authored Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr, a well-researched, well-regarded Oxford Press bio of the legendary hero of the Filipinos, Dr Jose Rizal (1861–1896).*…