Linda Thompson

Linda Thompson’s singing is the stuff of folk legend. In the 1970s, she released a string of albums with her then-husband Richard Thompson which contained some of the most timeless and melancholy songs of the era, including the classics “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”, “When I Get to the Border” and “Dimming of the Day”. What people may not know about Thompson – once hailed by Rolling Stone as “one of rock’n’roll’s finest voices” and now the matriarch of a great folk dynasty – is that she is a terrific storyteller and raconteur. In her 78 years, she has lived multiple lives: she has been a gangster’s wife (their union was swiftly annulled); one half of a feted folk duo; religious cult member; hard-partying divorcee; sometime actor, solo artist and antique dealer. Now, with her ninth decade fast approaching, she is ready to become a memoirist.    

Thompson’s book (Abacus, 2027) will tell a gripping story of music, friendship, love and wild tours alongside religious dogma, coercion and loss. There is darkness but wryness and humour too. Don’t be fooled by the solemnity of those early records: as well as an acute observer of her own and other people’s lives, Thompson is also a born entertainer.