 Most sources, including the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, posit cabaret singer Jean Ross, with whom Maschwitz had a youthful romantic liaison, as the muse for the song.When the song was written, Maschwitz was Head of Variety at the BBC.It is a list song (Maschwitz calls it a "catalogue song" in his biography), in this case delineating the various things that remind the singer of a lost love.