RALPH McTell loves to talk about his obsession with music.

A remarkably skilled folk musician (pictured) who has been fated to go down in history as "the man who wrote Streets of London", he's still passionate about the process of writing tunes after an eventful 30-plus years in the business.

"It was a phenomenon really," he begins about Streets. "Everything was right with that song. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't. But the older you get, the more grateful you are to have touched a nerve.

"I was only 22 or 23 when I wrote it. Sometimes you get it right and, really, you have to think, wasn't I the lucky one?"

But those who have only ever heard this track are missing out on an enormous body of work from a man who has legions of loyal fans all over the world. You only have to sneak a peek at his website to find that out!

"That all happened on its own. I don't even like to look at the chatroom. People talk about you as if you aren't there so it feels a bit intrusive if I have a look. It's the most revealing thing.

"One of my tour managers suggested I go out and meet people after a gig once, so I did and it was great to see the people who are just faces in the dark when I'm on stage.

"I have a lovely audience of a similar type all over the world and I've always been open with them. I'm suspicious of musicians who won't talk about music. If you've made an effort, you should explain the purpose and the reason behind it. I don't subscribe to that belief that a song is whatever you want it to be - when you write a song it takes hours, what you want to say, the rhyme, the internal poetry.

"I realised early on I wasn't able to be moulded into a commercial thing - there are enough people who have been interested in what I do. I want to be understood and create music that elicits a response from people. It's a little bit of light, a difference or a bit of interpretation - all these things. It's about common humanity rather than I have the knowledge and you don't."

He does take his craft seriously, that's clear, and personally admires artists like Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman. Does he feel there's an authenticity that a voice with simple accompaniment gets closer to?

"The technology now obfuscates because you can use it as a toy, but with Joni, her voice soars above that. That gift hasn't been given to everyone. Joni is like looking at a pencil drawing - there's vulnerability when people don't have to wade through a lot to get to you. It's just about perfect."

As well as campaigning away against the mundaneness of the modern music business - "they are salesmen selling a product and it might as well be a saucepan" - he has managed to produce two volumes of an autobiography, Angel Laughter and Summer Lightning.

"When I write, I type so slowly. So by the time I get to the end of the sentence, I at least may have found a punchline or a point! I was only telling the truth, which is not very creative. I would like to write properly but I don't think I could.

"Everyone's got a book in them, though, I really believe that."

Did it turn out to be a cathartic experience?

"I think probably I'm less haunted by traumatic things in the past. When I was younger, I was just very aware of the struggle one parent has when another leaves - it's tough to bear. I tend to live quite a lot in the past in a very romantic way but finally having cleared the decks has helped.

"Even though I left some of the darker things out, my mum, who's 87, still can't bear to read it. She finds it too painful - even though it was written as a 'thank you' for her."