Clive Murphy

Clive Murphy (born 1935) is a British author and social historian. He is well known for his "Ordinary Lives" series, in which he compiles individuals' oral histories and turns them into memoirs.[1]

Clive Murphy
Born1935 (age 85–86)
Liverpool, England
OccupationAuthor, social historian
Website
Official Website

Biography

Murphy was born in Liverpool in 1935. He was educated and brought up in Ireland where he qualified as a solicitor in 1958. In the same year, he emigrated to London and eventually settled in Spitalfields in the early 1970s. His Summer Overtures was joint winner of ADAM International Review's First Novel Award in 1972. Freedom for Mr. Mildew & Nigel Someone appeared to critical acclaim in one volume in 1975. A series of ten recorded autobiographies, the "Ordinary Lives" series, followed.[2] With the "Ordinary Lives" series he compiles individuals' oral histories and turns them into memoirs by voices that otherwise would not be heard.[1] The memoirs are based on interviews he taped with individuals who were residents of Spitalfields in the 1960s,[3] with Murphy writing them in the 1970s.[4] As of 2013, he continued to publish books in the series.[5]

Since 1999, Clive Murphy has published ten books of gay, often comic, ribaldry. The tenth, To Hell with Thomas Bowdler, Mrs Grundy and Mary Whitehouse!, was published in 2015.[6]

Books

Novels
  • Summer Overtures (1972)
  • Freedom for Mr. Mildew & Nigel Someone (1975)

Ordinary Lives series

All the books in this series are edited by Clive Murphy and published under the subjects' own names.

  • Deeds of a Good Woman by Beatrice Ali (1976)
  • Born to Sing by Alexander Hartog (1978)
  • Four Acres and a Donkey: the memoirs of a lavatory attendant by S. A. B. Rogers (1979)
  • Love, dears! The memoirs of a former chorus girl by Marjorie Graham (Dobson Books, 1980)[7] (new edition 2013 by Macmillan as Up in Lights)
  • Oiky: the memoirs of a pigman by Len Mills (1984)
  • At the Dog in Dulwich: recollections of a poet By Patricia Doubell (1986)
  • A Stranger in Gloucester: recollections of an Austrian in England by Mrs Falge-Wahl (1986)
  • A Funny Old Quist: the memoirs of a gamekeeper by Evan Rogers (1986; new edition by Eland in 2009)
  • Dodo by Dodo Lees (1993)
  • Endsleigh: memoirs of a river riverkeeper by Horace Adams (1994)

Ribald Rhymes
  • Sour Grapes (1999)
  • Cave canem (2002)
  • Orts and all: more ribald rhymes and gay doggery (2003)
  • Lust and malice: ribald rhymes and other verse (2005)
  • Sodomy is not enough! Ribald rhymes and other verse (2008)
  • Heavenly blue: rhymes more ribald (2009)
  • Gay abandon (2011)
  • On Pleasure Bent (2013)
  • Lock up your sons! (2014)
  • To Hell with Thomas Bowdler, Mrs Grundy and Mary Whitehouse! (2015)

References
  1. "Clive Murphy, Oral Historian & Writer of Ribald Rhymes". spitalfieldslife.com. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  2. "A life "up in lights"". East London News. June 1, 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  3. "Words of the Year – Spitalfields Life". STACK magazines. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  4. "Born to Sing? Alex Hartog". Eastlondonhistory.com. 18 November 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  5. A Life Up in Lights, London Bangla Press Club, June 1, 2013, retrieved 18 September 2016
  6. "Murphy, Clive". Bishopsgate Institute. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  7. "Clive Murphy, Up In Lights". Spitalfields Life. 9 May 2013.
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