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Graeme Fife

For those of a similar name, see Graham Fyfe (disambiguation).

Graeme Fife (born 1946) is a prolific English writer, playwright and broadcaster. His first career was as a schoolmaster and university lecturer.

Early life

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Born in 1946 in St Pancras, London, Fife is the son of John Fife and his wife Muriel H. Lickorish.[1] He was educated at schools in Greater London and then at the University of Durham, where he graduated with first class in Greek language and literature.[2]

Teaching career

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Fife taught Classics for one year at a school in Lancashire, then from 1970 to 1978 was Head of Classics at Gresham's School, Holt,[3] and later a lecturer in Greek and Roman literature at the University of Reading.[4]

Reception

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In July 1999, The Independent named Fife's Tour de France: The History, the Legend, the Riders as its book of the week.[5] The Times later ranked it as one of its top five sports books of the year.[6]

Reviewing Fife's The Terror: the Shadow of the Guillotine (2003) in The Independent, William Doyle called it "The most authoritative treatment we are likely to have for many years."

Of his book Arthur the King about the Arthurian legends, Gwyn A Williams, distinguished Welsh historian and former professor of history at University College Cardiff wrote: 'Much of what Fife wrote was new to me; what wasn't was conveyed more effectively than anything else I have read. From Fife's book, in both my own book and the television series I made, I got Camelot losing its glamour after Jerusalem fell and all that valuable detail of knighthood the book delves into (usually buried in academic tomes) .If I'd been permitted footnotes, Fife would have been all over the first Section of my book.'

In 1997, Fife wrote to The Independent to correct it on the origin of the word "clitoris".[7]

Publications

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As well as books, Fife has written plays, talks, and stories for BBC Radio.[8]

His novel Angel of the Assassination (2009) is a fictionalized account of the life of Charlotte Corday.[9]

This novel was rewritten and now titled No Common Assassin, available on Amazon

Books

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Plays

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Screenplays

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Radio Scripts

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Other

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Graeme J Fife" in England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007, ancestry.com, accessed 27 February 2023: Jul-Aug-Sep 1946; Pancras; Lickorish; Volume: 5d; Page: 669
  2. ^ Graeme Fife, listennotes.com, accessed 27 February 2023
  3. ^ Old Greshamian Magazine, Number 158, November 2019, pp. 53–54
  4. ^ Graeme Fife, thamesandhudson.com/authors, accessed 27 February 2023
  5. ^ "Book of the Week", The Independent, 4 July 1999, accessed 27 February 2023
  6. ^ "Graeme Fife Tour de France", Penguin Books, undated, accessed 27 February 2023
  7. ^ "Letter: New-found quote", The Independent, 4 June 1997
  8. ^ "Fife, Graeme", foxedquarterly.com, accessed 27 February 2023
  9. ^ Hank H. Cox, For Love of a Dangerous Girl (Takoma Communications, 2015), p. 120
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