British-American novelist, playwright, and commentator Bonnie Greer died September 15, the Guardian reported. She was 77. In a statement, her husband, David Hutchins, said Greer's "intelligence, courage and distinctive voice made an enduring contribution to British cultural and public life. To me, she was my partner, confidante and inspiration, and I feel profoundly privileged to have shared my life with her."
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| Bonnie Greer in 2017 (photo: RexxS) |
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Author Bernardine Evaristo posted on social media: "RIP Bonnie Greer. Very sad news. There was a period in the '90s/'00s when Bonnie was probably the most important and high profile black cultural commentator in the U.K. Other than her writing, she also sat on many important boards--representing."
Greer grew up on Chicago's South Side. She studied playwriting under David Mamet there before moving to New York to work in theater and then, in 1986, to the U.K., where she became a citizen in 1997.
Her first book, Hanging by Her Teeth (1994), was a novel about a Black American woman traveling through the U.S. and Europe in search of her father. Later books included Obama Music (2009), about her and the former U.S. president's connections to Chicago's South Side; Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction (2011), a biography of the Harlem Renaissance figure; and A Parallel Life (2014), her memoir. She also contributed to New Daughters of Africa (2019), an anthology edited by Margaret Busby. In 2022, she was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Greer's stage plays included Dancing on Blackwater, Jitterbug, and Munda Negra, for which she won the Soho Theatre Company Verity Bargate award for best play. In 2005, the BBC broadcast Marilyn and Ella Backstage at the Mocambo, Greer's radio play set in the 1950s that told the story of how Marilyn Monroe "persuaded a nightclub to book Fitzgerald amid racist reluctance, promising to sit in the front row every night," the Guardian noted. Greer later adapted the story into a musical drama for stage, Marilyn and Ella, which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Theatre Royal Stratford East, and the Apollo Theatre, London. She wrote many radio dramas for the BBC, as well as translating and dramatizing The Little Prince for a full-cast BBC radio adaptation.
Greer served on the boards of the Royal Opera House, the British Museum, and the London Film School, and was chancellor of Kingston University, London. In the 2010 Queen's birthday honors, she was given an OBE for contribution to the arts.
Many writers and politicians shared tributes to Greer on social media, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who wrote: "Bonnie's voice brought courage, humor and humanity to Britain's cultural conversation. She inspired and opened doors for so many others. And she was great fun too."
Former deputy prime minister David Lammy called Greer "a powerful wordsmith and artist, she was eloquent and exacting. A true life force."