Author and critic Bonnie Greer dies aged 77

Bonnie Greer, author and critic, died at the age of 77. Born in Chicago in 1948, Greer began writing plays while still young and later studied theatre in her hometown before attending the Actors Studio in New York under the direction of Elia Kazan. She relocated to the United Kingdom in 1986 and became a regular presence on British television, serving as a panellist on programmes such as *Newsnight Review* and *Question Time*. The Observer once listed her among the country’s leading national intellectuals, noting that her work—spanning multiple disciplines and platforms—frequently examined culture, conflict and national institutions. In 2016, speaking to the Guardian in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, Greer said: “When I aftermath up in the morning, I'm conscionable myself. It's lone erstwhile I permission the doorway that I go a achromatic pistillate to the world.” She added: “I archer achromatic women each the time, 'Don't apologise for yourself and support your hairsbreadth nappy. Make definite you are heard'.” Greer held board positions at several cultural organisations, including the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the London Film School, and served as chancellor of Kingston University in London. Her publications comprise the memoir *A Parallel Life* and a critical biography of the American writer and playwright Langston Hughes. She received the Verity Bargate Award for best play for *Munda Negra* and authored the novels *Hanging by Her Teeth* (1994) and *Entropy* (2009). Also in 2009, her memoir and music history *Obama Music* was published. In 2010 she was appointed an OBE for services to the arts, and in 2022 she was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.