Edward Greenfield
English music critic, author and broadcaster Edward Harry Greenfield was born at Westcliff-on-Sea on 3 July 1928. He did national service, studied modern languages and law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, then joined the Manchester Guardian in 1953, initially as a filing clerk.
By 1955 he was writing for the newspaper as a record critic, and as a music critic from 1964. By 1977 he had become chief music critic of The Guardian, a position he retained until retiring in 1993. He contributed to Gramophone magazine from 1960, and was later joint editor of The Stereo Record Guide. He also broadcast regularly for the BBC: The Greenfield Collection and other classical music programmes for the BBC World Service, and Building a Library for BBC Radio 3.
His published books include Puccini - Keeper Of The Seal (Arrow Books, 1958), Joan Sutherland (Ian Allen, 1972) and André Previn (New York Drake, 1973). He was one of the authors of The Penguin Guide to the 1000 Finest Classical Recordings (2012).
Edward Greenfield died at his home in London on 1 July 2015, aged nearly eighty-seven.