What do you think?
Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier: Revised and Enlarged Edition
A revised and enlarged paperback edition to mark the centenary of the much-loved singer's birth.
In 1953, at the age of 41, Kathleen Ferrier, England's greatest lyric contralto, lost her courageous battle with breast cancer. Her huge appeal to a wide audience - in concerts, on records, on the radio and in the opera house - has ensured her name endures to this day, despite a career which lasted barely ten years. In just half that time, this former telephone exchange operator was singing on stage at Covent Garden, before royalty at private parties, andat New York's Carnegie Hall.
This collection of letters and twelve years of her personal diaries was first published by Boydell Press in 2003. Here, an enlarged paperback edition contains a new chapter revealing her growingimportance to the BBC, an additional 90 letters, together with much revised material and a selection of moving tributes.
Published to mark the centenary of her birth in 1912, the book, of more than 400 letters, provides a vivid picture of a life which illuminated the war and post-war years of austerity and hardship.
Kathleen Ferrier was surely fun to know. Her personality was a mix of extreme modesty and self-determined ambition, topped with a mischievously blunt sense of earthy Lancastrian humour. She is known for her glorious voice, but through the pages of these fascinating letters and diaries we get to meet the real person.
DR CHRISTOPHER FIFIELD is a conductor, music historian, lecturer and broadcaster. He is the biographer of Max Bruch [Boydell Press 2005] and conductor Hans Richter, and the author of a history of the music agents Ibbs & Tillett.
In 1953, at the age of 41, Kathleen Ferrier, England's greatest lyric contralto, lost her courageous battle with breast cancer. Her huge appeal to a wide audience - in concerts, on records, on the radio and in the opera house - has ensured her name endures to this day, despite a career which lasted barely ten years. In just half that time, this former telephone exchange operator was singing on stage at Covent Garden, before royalty at private parties, andat New York's Carnegie Hall.
This collection of letters and twelve years of her personal diaries was first published by Boydell Press in 2003. Here, an enlarged paperback edition contains a new chapter revealing her growingimportance to the BBC, an additional 90 letters, together with much revised material and a selection of moving tributes.
Published to mark the centenary of her birth in 1912, the book, of more than 400 letters, provides a vivid picture of a life which illuminated the war and post-war years of austerity and hardship.
Kathleen Ferrier was surely fun to know. Her personality was a mix of extreme modesty and self-determined ambition, topped with a mischievously blunt sense of earthy Lancastrian humour. She is known for her glorious voice, but through the pages of these fascinating letters and diaries we get to meet the real person.
DR CHRISTOPHER FIFIELD is a conductor, music historian, lecturer and broadcaster. He is the biographer of Max Bruch [Boydell Press 2005] and conductor Hans Richter, and the author of a history of the music agents Ibbs & Tillett.
514 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2004
About the author
Christopher Fifield
9 books1 followerChristopher Fifield was an English conductor, classical music historian and musicologist based in London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 25, 2011
From 1949 to 1951 Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth lived at Frognal Cottage opposite Kathleen Ferrier, where she lived at 2 Frognal Mansions. They became friends with Kathleen when they met her walking on Hampstead Heath as they were walking their Cairn terrier, Smoky. Webster had been booked to sing a Messiah with her in 1951, but they were both very disappointed when she had to cancel this performance because of her illness. When I was singing much the same repertoire as Kathleen, they often lent me her recordings from their own record collection. Thus, although Kathleen had died tragically young when I was a child, I always felt a close affinity with this wonderful woman with the unique contralto voice of the twentieth century.
I was rather disappointed to find that Kathleen Ferrier's diaries were little more than concert dates, occasionally with brief remarks about how a particular engagement went. On reflection, she was working so hard, she would have had little time to write substantial diary entries at the end of a busy day.
The letters more than compensated for the brevity of the diaries. She wrote many business letters to keep her very busy career in order. While many singers might have longed for more engagements, Kathleen Ferrier was overwhelmed with offers, to the extent that she often had to turn engagements down and beg for a few days respite from her agent, Emmie Tillet. She could certainly never have undertaken such a demanding career had she been married with children. Her letters show that her extensive American tours in the late 1940s involved exhausting travel arrangements. She had to pay for her own advertising, travel, accompanist and accommodation on these tours, so she hardly made a fortune at $50 a concert.
Her affectionate, informal letters to her sister, Winifred, her father and other friends were always bright, self-deprecating and humorous. Her letters of thanks to acquaintances were always appreciative and polite. Even when she turned down songs which had been sent to her, or engagements she could not undertake, she did so in a kindly way.
Once again, it was sad to see her grave illness taking hold so that she eventually lacked health and strength to write her own letters and relied on her help-meet, Bernie to write to people on her behalf.
There is a good bibliography,an extensive index of works in Kathleen's repertoire, another of places, venues and festivals, as well as a general index.
I was rather disappointed to find that Kathleen Ferrier's diaries were little more than concert dates, occasionally with brief remarks about how a particular engagement went. On reflection, she was working so hard, she would have had little time to write substantial diary entries at the end of a busy day.
The letters more than compensated for the brevity of the diaries. She wrote many business letters to keep her very busy career in order. While many singers might have longed for more engagements, Kathleen Ferrier was overwhelmed with offers, to the extent that she often had to turn engagements down and beg for a few days respite from her agent, Emmie Tillet. She could certainly never have undertaken such a demanding career had she been married with children. Her letters show that her extensive American tours in the late 1940s involved exhausting travel arrangements. She had to pay for her own advertising, travel, accompanist and accommodation on these tours, so she hardly made a fortune at $50 a concert.
Her affectionate, informal letters to her sister, Winifred, her father and other friends were always bright, self-deprecating and humorous. Her letters of thanks to acquaintances were always appreciative and polite. Even when she turned down songs which had been sent to her, or engagements she could not undertake, she did so in a kindly way.
Once again, it was sad to see her grave illness taking hold so that she eventually lacked health and strength to write her own letters and relied on her help-meet, Bernie to write to people on her behalf.
There is a good bibliography,an extensive index of works in Kathleen's repertoire, another of places, venues and festivals, as well as a general index.
March 30, 2026
I've always known of Kathleen Ferrier and her beautiful, velvety voice but reading about her life through her words in diaries and letters broke my heart. What an astonishing woman with a gift as huge as her heart. xx
August 2, 2012
This book should be self-recommending to anyone interested in Ferrier, although those who have read her sister's book will have already encountered a substantial portion of its contents. The letters, of course, are delightful. The other Goodreads reviewer found the Diaries section rather dry. Personally, I found it quite interesting, not only for its prosaic details about the life of a touring artist, but also for amusing sidelights found nowhere else, such as details about Ferrier's movie-going (there is even a cryptic entry from one of her US tours about a meeting with Judy Holliday!). I do wish that the Diaries had been much more fully annotated, however: KF's fondness for abbreviations can be confusing, and most of the entries are laconic in the extreme.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews