{"product_id":"9781782041450","title":"Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier: Revised and Enlarged Edition","description":"Fifty years ago, Kathleen Ferrier, the greatest lyric contralto Britain has ever produced, lost her courageous battle with breast cancer. Her name endures to this day, for she struck a chord with a wide-ranging public - in concerts, on records and on the radio - despite a career which lasted barely ten years. Within a decade this former telephone exchange operator was singing on stage at Covent Garden or before royalty at private parties. She was surely fun to know: this collection of 300+ letters and twelve years of her personal diaries give a sunny picture of her life in the muted post-war years.\u0026lt;BR\u0026gt;\u0026lt;BR\u0026gt; Her indefinable personality was a mix of extreme modesty and self-determined ambition, and a mischievously blunt sense of earthy Lancastrian humour. Until now, Kathleen Ferrier has been a glorious voice, but through the pages of these fascinating letters and diaries, never previously published, we get to the real person.\u0026lt;BR\u0026gt;\u0026lt;BR\u0026gt; CHRISTOPHER FIFIELD is foremost a conductor, butalso a writer on music history (\u0026lt;I\u0026gt;Grove, DNB, Viking Opera Guide, Oxford Companion to Music\u0026lt;\/I\u0026gt;), and the author of two biographies, of Max Bruch (recently reissued by the Boydell Press) and Hans Richter.","brand":"Boydell \u0026 Brewer, Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47131423342832,"sku":"9781782041450","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781782041450_p0.jpg?v=1763718227","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781782041450","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}