Liz has contributed interviews, reviews and features to newspapers and magazines around the world.
From 1984-2008 Liz was on the staff of Publishing News, latterly as Associate Editor and Editor. The position offered a ringside seat in the book trade during an era of unprecedented change and involved reporting the day-to-day business of publishing and interviewing its key players. It also provided unique and early access to an astonishing parade of authors eager to talk about everything from a first novel to their presidential memoirs.
From 1993-95, she was literary editor of Chic and from 1997 to 2008, only thinly disguised, she penned a weekly column on publishing for the Independent.
Throughout, she has written widely on aspects of popular music for both specialist and mainstream publications. She is currently a contributing editor to TheArtsDesk.com, and writes regularly for the Guardian and the I.
The following selection lists articles by category in reverse chronological order.
Interviews | Reviews | Features | Opinion | Obituaries and Tributes | About
Interviews
Musicians
Janis Ian: ‘I make people uncomfortable’
Judy Collins on activism, trauma, ageing and addiction: ‘I had a lot of angels on my side’
Singer-songwriter Peggy Seeger: still in the vanguard of her musical dynasty
Steve Earle: My job is to have empathy
Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back – No, not Frank Sinatra but the great folk singer, Judy Collins
Last of the Mad Ones: Fifty Years after Jack Kerouac’s death, his friend David Amram is still bopping on
Saint Joan: As Joan Baez prepares to give her final performance, Liz Thomson talks to her and traces a 60-year career filled with courage and conviction
Baez bows out (PDF download)
Singer Julie Felix: friends with Leonard Cohen and dinner with David Frost
Folk revival star Bonnie Dobson on taking tea with Bob Dylan and returning to the stage
Janis Ian: 47 years of gigging
Peter Yarrow: A dragon lives forever… (PDF download)
Jane Glover: Settling a score (PDF download)
A life full of music and aiding others: Nana Mouskouri
Joan Baez: Ms Baez regrets… (PDF download)
Barbara Dickson: Don’t think twice, it’s all right
Sir Michael Tippett: Towards the millennium (PDF download)
Peter Townshend: “Running a rock band is not dissimilar from running a publishing house” (PDF download)
Joan Baez: A survivor who still sings for piece (PDF download)
Leonard Cohen: Thoughts of a ladies’ man (PDF download)
Actors
Charlotte Rampling looks at her life
Charlotte Rampling: “I had to survive”
Charlotte Rampling: “I’m now the wise woman”
Actor Charlotte Rampling’s tragic family secret
Oscar-nominated actress Charlotte Rampling talks about growing up in East Anglia
Truly Julie: Julie Walters (PDF download)
Laughter in the dark: Maureen Lipman
Vanessa Redgrave: Addressing Vanessa (PDF download)
Politicians
Jimmy Carter: Renaissance man (PDF download)
Bill Clinton gives Liz Thomson an update on his memoir (PDF download)
Gerry Adams: Even the dogs in the street new the peace process was over
Liz Thomson meets the President of Sinn Fein and a Special Branch officer’s widow Part 1 | Part 2 (PDF download)
Barbara Castle: “Stuff his bloody title” (PDF download)
David Steel: A canny Scot (PDF download)
Norman Tebbit: The real Tebbit? (PDF download)
Publishers
Gordon Lish, still vibrant after all these years
Sigrid Rausing: Rausing to the challenge Part 1 | Part 2 (PDF download)
Stephen Page: The cat’s whiskers (PDF download)
Carmen Callil: Sins of the father (PDF download)
Paul Hamlyn: The last tycoon (PDF download)
Morgan Entrekin: Morgan’s next ride (PDF download)
Peter Mayer: The Tale of Peter Mayer (PDF download)
Authors, in general
Clare Pooley Makes a New Beginning In Her Debut Novel
Robert Macfarlane Heads Underground In His Latest Book
Hanan al-Shaykh’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Neel Mukherjee on displacement and desire
A restaurant in London’s Soho: Clare Lattin and Tom Hill
Alan Bennett: “I hope I’m not getting too old gittish”
Alan Bennett: “One of my real regrets is that I’ve never kept a donkey”
Alan Bennett: “I blame Brexit on Mrs Thatcher. The Tories were not to be trusted”
John Preston: Sex, lies and a murder plot
Rage, rage – Harry Smith’s light burns with the heat of indignation
Andrew Motion: Poetry in motion
Dan Brown: “I sit down in my pyjamas and write”
Ruth Gruber: A witness to history (PDF download)
Adam Gopnik: A New York state of mind (PDF download)
Amanda Vaill on Jerome Robbins: Those dancing feet (PDF download)
Julie Burchill: A once hip young gunslinger (PDF download)
Gillian Flynn: Out of the Midwest (PDF download)
Colin Larkin and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Go where the music takes you (PDF download)
Sharon Moalem: Doctor at large (PDF download)
Alan Bennett: Telling tales at last Part 1 | Part 2 (PDF download)
Gerald Scarfe: Scarce unravelled (PDF download)
Barry Miles: King of the counterculture Part 1 | Part 2 (PDF download)
Richard Picciotto: One year on – the fire chief’s story
James Lee Burke: Still angry after all these years (PDF download)
Sue Townsend: The grit beneath the froth (PDF download)
David Hajdu and Howard Sounes: If not for you (PDF download)
Reviews
Eurthymics Songbook featuring Dave Stewart, London Palladium
Album: Who We Used to Be, James Blunt
Album: You’re the One, Rhiannon Giddens
Judy Collins, Cambridge Folk Festival
Album: Stories from a Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart, Lucinda Williams
Book: An Uneasy Inheritance, Polly Toynbee
Album: Folkocracy, Rufus Wainwright
Album: I Only See the Moon, The Milk Carton Kids
Album: In Between Thoughts… A New World, Rodrigo y Gabriela
Album: Stolen from God, Reg Meuross
Suzanne Vega, Royal Festival Hall
Album: Willie Nelson – I Don’t Know a Thing About Love: The Songs of Harlan Howard
Transatlantic Sessions, Southbank Centre – An Evening of Stellar Music-making
Album Shania Twain – Queen of Me
Mary Gauthier, Union Chapel – A Living Room Concert in All But Name
The Manhattan Transfer, Queen Elizabeth Hall – A Class Act
Barbara Dickson, Cecil Sharp House – Intimate and Beautifully Paced
Album: Bruce Springsteen – Only The Strong Survive
Angeline Morrison, Cecil Sharp House – A Ballad-maker for Our Time
Bob Dylan, London Palladium: Why I Won’t Be Buying Tickets to See Him Live Again
Cambridge Folk Festival 222 review – A Welcome Cherry Hinton Reunion
Album: Mary Gauthier – Dark Enough to See the Stars
Album: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Dirt Does Dylan
Album: Kate Rusby – 30: Happy Returns
Album: Willie Nelson – A Beautiful Time
Album: Bonnie Raitt – Just Like That
Album: Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage – Ink of the Rosy Morning
Album: Judy Collins – Spellbound
Album: Le Vent du Nord – 20 Printemps
Album: Janis Ian – The Light at the End of the Line
Album: Willie Nelson – The Nelson Family
Rufus Wainwright, London Palladium review – superb musicianship and a warm welcome
Album: Standing in the Doorway – Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan
Reclaiming Amy, BBC Two review – Winehouse family and friends remember
Sheryl Crow, The Songs and The Stories, review: A powerful evening at church
Ed Miliband: Go Big – How to Fix Our World review – reasons to hope
Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan, review: one of his best shows in years
Van Morrison, Real World Studios, review: New horrors and old classics
Craig Taylor: New Yorkers – A City and Its People in Our Time
Steve Hackett – Under A Mediterranean Sky
Mary Chapin Carpenter, One Night Lonely livestream review – down-home and perfectly paced
David Crosby: Remember My Name, Sky Arts review – a rock icon looks in the mirror
Barbara Dickson – Time is Going Faster
Elvis Costello – Hey Clockface
Melody Gardot – Sunset in the Blue
Loudon Wainwright III with Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks – I’d Rather Lead a Band
Bob Woodward: Rage review – terror and tyranny in the White House
Suzanne Vega – An Evening of New York Songs and Stories
Cara Dillon Live at Cooper Hall, YouTube review – a warm Irish welcome
Tanya Donelly and The Parkington Sisters
Jenny Diski – Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told? Essays – a posthumous collection from the pages of the LRB
Courtney Marie Andrews – Old Flowers
Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm, BBC Four – the amazing story of Britain’s own honky chateau
Rufus Wainwright – Unfollow the Rules
Willie Nelson – First Rose of Spring
Romeo and Michele Stodart Present… The Thank-You Green Note Fundraiser, YouTube – saving Camden’s go-to music venue
Laura Marling, Union Chapel, YouTube – communication breakdown
Billy Bragg in support of The Leadmill, Facebook Live – fundraising success of a lounge act
Steve Earle & The Dukes – Ghosts of West Virginia
The Shadows at Sixty, BBC Four – pop’s age of innocence
Fink, Bloom Innocent – Acoustic
Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Netflix review – a friendly provocateur
Nels Andrews – Pigeon and The Crow
Pokey LaFarge – Rock Bottom Rhapsody
Elton John’s iHeart Living Room Concert for America, YouTube – the real star was a Mayo Clinic doctor named Elvis
Rock ‘n’ Roll Island: Where Legends Were Born, BBC Four – remembering rock’s big bang
The Story of Ready Steady Go!, BBC Four – when life was fab
The Indigo Girls, Facebook Live – lightening the blues
Reg Meuross and David Massengill, Green Note, Camden – master craftsmen at work
Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Eventim Apollo – and the band played on
James Taylor, American Standard – a trip down memory lane
Album: Sam Lee, Old Wow – a hymn to Mother Nature
Gerde’s Folk City at 60, The Iridium, New York City – a celebration of the legendary folk club
Bombay Bicycle Club – Everything Else Has Gone Wrong
Judy Collins, Grand Central Hall, Liverpool review – how sweet the sound, even at 80
Rod Stewart, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, O2 review – Tonight’s the Night
Rufus and Martha Wainwright, A Not So Silent Night
Billy Bragg – a pep talk from the progressive patriot
Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi – musical togetherness
Darlingside – finger-picking good
Lisa Stansfield – mutual Affection, 30 years on
Thomas J Campanella: Brooklyn – The Once and Future City – out of Manhattan’s shadow
Burt Bacharach with Joss Stone – an evening of timeless classics
Stevie Wonder – The Master Blaster steps out
Sarah Jane Morris & Tony Rémy –- Sweet Little Mystery: The Songs of John Martyn
Tony Bennett – still cutting it at 92
Billy Joel – The Entertainer delivers
Anthony B Atkinson: Measuring Poverty Around the World – first, second and third world problems
The Waterboys – energetic delights
Mark Knopfler – The Sultan’s Return
David Hepworth: A fabulous creation – how vinyl soothed our souls and defined our being
Loreena McKennitt, Royal Albert Hall – making Celtic connections
I’m Every Woman, JW3, London – a musical celebration of International Women’s Day
Jason Mraz, Royal Albert Hall – a rare UK visit from the Grammy-winning organic farmer
Joan Baez, London Palladium – fare-thee-well generosity
Jill Abramson: Merchants of Truth – news in the age of digital disruption
Morrissey and Marshall – And So It Began Again… Acoustically
Katie Doherty & The Navigators – And Then
Katie Melua and Gori Women’s Choir, Central Hall Westminster, London – Georgia on her mind
The Albion Christmas Band – Under the Christmas Tree
Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall – all stand for the piano man
The Ballads of Child Migration, St James’s Church, Clerkenwell – into the heart of darkness
The Simon & Garfunkel Story, Vaudeville Theatre – more tribute act than theatre piece
Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra – The Capitol Studios Sessions
Roseanne Cash: She Remembers Everything
David Crosby: Here If You Listen
Duane Eddy, London Palladium – The twang’s the thang
Jackie Oates: The Joy of Living
Cambridge Folk Festival: women rule the roost
Tom Baxter: The Other Side of Blue
Joan Baez, Royal Albert Hall review – diamonds, but no rust
Jennifer Warnes – Another Time, Another Place
Gretchen Peters – Dancing with the Beast
Clancy Sigal: The London Lover review – a merry prankster’s very long weekend
Mary Chapin Carpenter, Barbican, review – a three-decade retrospective
Mary Chapin Carpenter: Sometimes Just the Sky
Lynne Murphy: The Prodigal Tongue
Beth Nielsen-Chapman, Cadogan Hall – Nashville chats
Dian Jones, The Lexington – At the crossroads of folk and country
Stephen Stills and Judy Collins: Everybody Knows
Joan Baez: Whistle Down the Wind
Beth Nielsen- Chapman: Hearts of Glass
I’m With Her, Bush Hall: folk supergroup debut album to treasure
Tom Russell, 100 Club: tales from a time-honoured troubadour
Neil Young + Promise of the Real: The Visitor
Mavis Staples: If All I Was Was Black
Seeger MacColl Family, Cecil Sharp House – keeping the tradition alive
Richard F Thomas: Why Dylan Matters
Peggy Seeger: The First Time Ever – A Memoir
Woody Guthrie: “The true voice of the American spirit”
Sparks: 02 Shepherd’s Bush – Age does not wither them
Neil Sedaka: Royal Albert Hall – Sparkly veteran defies the decades
Adam Macqueen: The Lies of the Land – light but enlightening
Kev Minney: Stories of the Sky
Joan Osborne: Songs of Bob Dylan
Jason Webster: Fatal Sunset – more flavoursome crime from Valencia
Indigo Girls: Islington Assembly Hall – exhilarating and generous
Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Cadogan Hall – love, peace and harmonies
Danny Goldberg: In Search of the Lost Chord – 1967 well-remembered
Chris Patten: A Sort of Memoir – remembrances of government and power
Steve Earle & The Dukes: So you wanna be an outlaw
Billy Bragg: Roots, Radicals and Rockers
Bella Bathurst: Sound – review: An illuminating book on deafness
Bob Dylan, Wembley Arena – mannered vocals, poor sound, upsetting
John Mellencamp: Sad Clowns and Hillbillies
Imelda May: Life. Love. Flesh. Blood
Radio 2 Folk Awards, Royal Albert Hall
Tom Waits: Tales from a cracked jukebox
Josh Ritter, St Stephen’s Church
Judy Collins: A Love Letter to Stephen Sondheim
Yiyun Li: Dear Friend, from my life I write to you in your life
James Lee Burke: The Jealous Kind
Martin Carthy: Folk star still singing after all these years
Martha Wainwright: Goodnight City
The New Yorker Book of the Sixties
Alan Bennett: Keeping on Keeping on
Hampstead-born Martin Carthy returns to play in Crouch End
Folk City (PDF download)
Paul Robeson: A Watched Man by Jordan Goodman
All These Years: The Beatles Volume One by Mark Lewisohn
The Story of Music by Howard Goodall
I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons
My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte
This Land is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the journey of an American folksong
A Natural Woman: A Memoir by Carole King
All the Madmen by Clinton Heylin
The Man Who Recorded the World: A Biography of Alan Lomax by John Szwed
Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz
Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes
London Calling: A Countercultural History of London Since 1945 by Barry Miles
In the Seventies: Adventures in the Counterculture by Barry Miles
Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol 2 – 1974-2008
Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol 1 -1957-73 by Clinton Heylin
The Cambridge Companion to The Beatles edited by Keith Womack
A Shirtbox full of Songs by Barbara Dickson
You Never Give Me Your Money by Peter Doggett
Everything is Connected by Daniel Barenboim and Music at the Limits by Edward W Said
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music edited by Colin Larkin
Ragged Glories: City Lights, Country Funk, American Music by Barney Hoskyns
The Bob Dylan Scrapbook 1956-1966 by Robert Santelli
The Rolling Thunder Logbook by Sam Shepard
Revolution in the Head / Summer of Love (PDF download)
How Can I keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (PDF download)
The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock ‘n’ Roll/The Illustrated Rock Handbook/Popular Music 3 (PDF download)
Lennon’s epitaph (PDF download)
Features
The Bob Dylan signature scandal could destroy his legacy forever
On the Road Again: Jack Kerouac’s romantic image might have outlasted his greatest work
Bob Dylan at 80: How ‘the singing poet laureate of young America’ shaped the 21st century
Tangled Up in Blue: Bob Dylan turns 80
From Scotland with love and peace: Folk icon’s songs of justice would be heard around the world
Maxwell Perkins: the publisher who took a chance on an unknown author called F Scott Fitzgerald
Now is the hour – 103 and trending: Dame Vera Lynn eight decades after her debut
Eighty years of cat and mouse: the timeless appeal of Tom and Jerry
Behind the Scenes of the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame
Desmond Elliott: From Dublin orphanage to the toast of literary London
My father was failed by his homecare company
Un livre sur l’homosexualité au Maroc remporte le Prix Littéraire de La Mamounia
Gone with the Wind: The legend lives on as a musical of the novel hits the West End
Looking for diamonds in the slush pile
Hollywood on the Hudson: A walking tour of Greenwich Village (PDF download)
Opinion
Why Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize for Literature is long overdue
Bob Dylan’s Nobel: “Yippie! I’m a poet and I know it/Hope I don’t blow it”
Yes, Bob Dylan absolutely deserves the Nobel
When we as patients talk about the NHS, it’s personal (PDF download)
Forty years on, welcome to the new plutocracy (PDF download)
What does Brexit mean for publishing?
Johnson’s Shakespeare, or Much Ado About Nothing
A degree of thought: PRH opens its doors to bright non-graduates
U.K. bookselling adjusting to the new normal
Gail Rebuck and Victoria Barnsley: The dethroned queens of the publishing industry
No experience necessary – Ebury ad raises ire
Belafonte: singer and history man
Self-publishing: time for a reality check
Creative writing or creative accounting?
Are publishing courses about writing, or creative writing?
Oxfam: Time to examine the terms of trade
Morrisey: An error of taste and judgment
Tallis, James and Music for Pleasure
Obituaries and Tributes
Iradj Bagherzade – publisher behind IB Tauris, adding a Middle Eastern perspective to western conceptions of the arts, culture and politics
Philip Kogan – founder of the publisher Kogan Page, one of the first companies to focus on business and management titles
Carmen Callil – publisher who founded Virago, which champions women’s writing and books on feminist topics
Tom Maschler obituary – Booker Prize founder and publisher of some of the greats of 20th-century fiction
Josephine Cox obituary – writer whose bestselling novels were based on the people and communities she had known in the north of England
Wendy Cooling obituary – teacher, author and anthologist who founded Bookstart to give babies and toddlers their first reading experiences
Felicity Bryan obituary – dynamic literary agent with an extraordinary gift for nurturing new talent
Elisabeth Maxwell: A widow’s pique
Fred Newman: Co-founder of the British Book Awards
About
Square Roots Productions: ‘Our special transatlantic bond is music’
New morning: on stepping down from the book trade