Graeme Fife


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

Early life

Born in 1946 in St Pancras, London, Fife is the son of John Fife and his wife Muriel H. Lickorish. 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.

Teaching career

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, and later a lecturer in Greek and Roman literature at the University of Reading.

Reception

In July 1999, The Independent named Fife's Tour de France: The History, the Legend, the Riders as its book of the week. The Times later ranked it as one of its top five sports books of the year.
Reviewing Fife's The Terror: the Shadow of the Guillotine 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 .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".

Publications

As well as books, Fife has written plays, talks, and stories for BBC Radio.
His novel Angel of the Assassination is a fictionalized account of the life of Charlotte Corday.
This novel was rewritten and now titled No Common Assassin, available on Amazon

Books

  • Polly Polestar
  • The Wrong Side of the Bed
  • Story in anthology: The Man in Black
  • Arthur the King: a study of mediaeval romance in its social, literary and historical context
  • Tour de France: the history, the legend, the riders
  • Tour de France: Tour de Souffrance
  • Inside the Peloton: Riding, Winning and Losing the Tour de France
  • The Terror: The Shadow of the Guillotine, France 1792–1794
  • Bob Chicken: A Passion for the Bike
  • Great Road Climbs of the Pyrenees
  • The Beautiful Machine
  • Massif Guide to the Great Road Climbs of the Pyrenees
  • Angel of the Assassination
  • Great Road Climbs of the Southern Alps
  • Brian Robinson, Pioneer
  • Great Road Climbs of the Northern Alps
  • The Elite Bicycle: a Portrait of the World's Greatest Bicycles
  • Memory's Ransom The Conrad Press 2024 a novel based on a true story told to the author
  • Two of the Mountains books originally published by Rapha now published by Thames and Hudson

Plays

  • Praise Be to God
  • Reg
  • The Great French Revolution Show
  • Lysistrata by Aristophanes
  • The Silver Nutmeg
  • Grimaldi
  • Once Upon a Time...
  • The Andria
  • The Weaker Sex
  • Gesualdo
  • Mr Shakespeare...Mr Liebowitz
  • Jam
  • The Door France

Screenplays

Radio Scripts

  • Elias Howe
  • Some thirty Stories about composers, Monologues and Duologues
  • Snipe 3909
  • Earth to Earth
  • Vivaldi
  • Revolutionary Portraits
  • The Whisper of the Axe
  • Arthur the King
  • La Mogador
  • The March of the Ten Thousand
  • The Misfortune at Seaham
  • A Breath of Fresh Air
  • Pearls Go with Pearls
  • Godslots
  • Surviving Wagner
  • St Cecilia of Sicilia
  • Wilf
  • Cat's Whiskers, six short playlets
  • The Figaro Letters
  • The Athenian Trireme
  • Doggett's Coat and Badge
  • The Night Stairs
  • Timbuktu: Drowning in Sand
  • Vegetarian Cyclists
  • Bikesongs
  • Bicycle Music
  • Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila and the Lost Glory
  • The Fighting Temeraire, The Battle and the Breeze
  • The Sweetness of the Garden
  • Spem in Alium
  • Beau Geste
  • Robert Graves and Myth R3 Essays
  • many scripts for Pause for Thought
  • Several contributions to From Our Own Correspondent

Other

  • 'The View from the Oarbench' in Frank Welsh, ''Building the Trireme''