This is a song I wrote many years ago – a different time, a different place, a different me. The Valerie of the title does not represent any individual girl I have known, but I think many of us can maybe relate to the song. Most of us will have encountered Valeries and perhaps only later wondered what damage they might have suffered before we ever knew them. Not that the narrator in the song is much help.

I discovered after writing the song that quite a lot of people don’t know the expression, “discretion is the better part of valour.” This is a pity, but fans of the Mysterious Beings comprise a smart, cultured and well-read demographic and should encounter no such problems.