Bright Light

Linda Thompson's singing is the stuff of folk legend. In the 1970s, she released a string of albums with her then-husband Richard Thompson which contained some of the most timeless and melancholy songs of the era, including the classics "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight", "When I Get to the Border" and "Dimming of the Day". What people may not know about Thompson - once hailed by Rolling Stone as "one of rock'n'roll's finest voices" and now the matriarch of a great folk dynasty (others include the Wainwrights, Seegers and Carthys) - is that she is a terrific storyteller and raconteur. In her 78 years, she has lived multiple lives: she has been a gangster's wife (their union was swiftly annulled); one half of a feted folk duo; religious cult member; hard-partying divorcee; sometime actor, solo artist and antique dealer. Now, with her ninth decade fast approaching, she is ready to become a memoirist.