- Charlotte Greig
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Charlotte Greig (born 1954, Malta) is a British novelist, playwright, singer and song-writer.
Contents
Early life
Charlotte Greig's father was in the navy and the family travelled the world. In 1962, she attended Charsfield village school, later described in Ronald Blythe's book Akenfield, where she learned to sing folk songs. At the age of 10 she was sent to a convent boarding school, St Stephen's College, Broadstairs, Kent, where she learned to play piano. She studied philosophy at Sussex University during the 1970s, a setting recounted in A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy.
Career
Journalism
After university, Greig worked as a music journalist in print and radio. In 1990 she presented a six-part series on BBC Radio 1 called Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow on girl groups in popular music. It was based on her own book of the same title, published in 1989. In 1991 she wrote another Radio 1 documentary, British Black Music, and went on to present popular music features for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and Kaleidoscope. By 1998 Greig was working for Mojo magazine, reviewing folk and country music.
Music
In the same year, she issued the first of her own albums, Night Visiting Songs. It consisted of four traditional songs, with the rest written by herself. This has set the tone for her subsequent albums: acoustic understated gothic folk music. Unusually, she plays harmonium and mountain dulcimer, with occasional electronic additions. Her last four albums have been collaborations with guitarist Julian Hayman. Her main influences are Lal Waterson and Nico. She appeared on the Topic anthology A Woman's Voice (many other anthologies exist with the same title). In 2007 she curated and contributed to Migrating Bird,a tribute album to the late Lal Waterson released on Honest Jon's record label.
Writing
In 2007 her first novel, A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy, was published in the UK by Serpent's Tail. It was also published in the US (Other Press), and in translation in Italy (Tropea), Sweden (Voltaire), and Turkey (Sel Yayincilik).
Her non-fiction works include: Icons of Black Music (1999, Brown Partworks); 100 Bestselling Albums of the 1950s (2004, Amber Books); and Play Guitar like the Greats (2006).
She has also written two radio plays, The Confessions (2009) and Against the Grain (2010), both broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and co-written a musical theatre piece with author Rachel Tresize entitled I Sing of a Maiden (2008). In 2011, she wrote another musical theatre piece, 'Dr Freud's Cabaret', with Anthony Reynolds. It featured songs in the voices of Freud's early patients, including The Wolf Man, The Rat Man, Anna O, and Dora.
Discography
Albums
- Night Visiting Songs (1998)
- Down in the Valley (2000)
- At Llangennith (2001)
- Winter Woods (2003)
- Quite Silent (2005)
Anthologies
- The Executioner's Last Songs (2003)
- A Woman's Voice (2004)
- Migrating Bird (2007)
- John Barleycorn Reborn (2007)
- James Yorkston:When the Haar Rolls in Covers Disc (2008)
- Crow Club: Various Artists (2009)
- Like the Sun Feeds From Flowers (with Anthony Reynolds) (2010)
Bibliography
Fiction
- A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy (2007)
Non-fiction
- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (1989)
- Icons of Black Music (1999)
- Bestselling Albums of the 1950s (2004)
- Play Guitar Like the Greats (2006)
Plays
- I Sing of a Maiden (with Rachel Trezise) (2008)
- The Confessions (2009)
- Against the Grain (2010)
- Dr Freud's Cabaret (with Anthony Reynolds) (2010)
External links
Categories:- Psych folk musicians
- 1954 births
- Living people
- Alumni of the University of Sussex
- British dramatists and playwrights
- British journalists
- British novelists
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