Edward Harry Greenfield
OBE (3 July 1928 – 1 July 2015) was an English music critic and broadcaster.
Early life
Edward Greenfield was born in
Westcliff-on-Sea
Westcliff-on-Sea (often abbreviated to Westcliff) is an inner city area of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north shore of the lower Thames Estuary, about 34 ...
, Essex. His father, Percy Greenfield, was a manager in a labour exchange, while his mother, Mabel, was a clerk. He was briefly evacuated to
Belper in Derbyshire when the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
began.
[ He attended ]Westcliff High School for Boys
Westcliff High School for Boys (WHSB) is an 11–18 selective academy grammar school for boys in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, England. In September 2001 the school was awarded ‘Beacon’ status for its breadth of achievements and quality of work. T ...
, and then did two years of National Service.[ During his service, which began in 1947, he was with the Royal Army Educational Corps, where he was promoted to sergeant. He was deployed with the British Army of the Rhine in Germany.][
He went to ]Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...
, to study modern languages,[ but ended up graduating in law.]
Career
Greenfield joined ''The Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in 1953, where he began as a filing clerk. He then became a lobby correspondent in the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
.[
He was a record critic for the newspaper from 1955, a music critic from 1964, and was chief music critic from 1977 until his retirement in 1993. He contributed to '' Gramophone'' magazine from 1960, and was joint editor of '']The Stereo Record Guide
''The Stereo Record Guide'' is a series of nine classical discographies published by the Long Playing Record Library in Blackpool from 1960 to 1974.
When volume 1 was published in late 1960, the majority of classical records issued were monaural. ...
'' after 1960.[
A regular broadcaster on the ]BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, including his selection of music and requests on ''The Greenfield Collection'',
and was a regular contributor to the ''Building a Library'' feature of Radio 3's ''Record Review'' for many years.
Greenfield was appointed
in 1994.