Desmond Shawe-Taylor

Desmond Christopher Shawe-Taylor, (29 May 1907 – 1 November 1995), was a British writer, co-writer of The Record Guide, music critic of the New Statesman, The New Yorker and The Sunday Times and a regular and long-standing contributor to The Gramophone.

Biography

Shawe-Taylor was born in Dublin, the elder of two sons of Francis Manley Shawe-Taylor (1869–1920), magistrate and high sheriff for the county of Galway, and his wife, Agnes Mary Eleanor née Ussher (1874–1939). His parents were members of the Anglo-Irish ruling classes; he was related to the playwright and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, Lady Gregory and a cousin of Sir Hugh Lane who founded Dublin's gallery of modern art. His childhood was brutally interrupted by his father's murder. He was sent to be educated in England, at Shrewsbury School and Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1930 with a first class degree in English. This was followed by a series of updates and an enlarged new edition between 1952 and 1956.

The long-established music magazine The Gramophone wrote of him, "His writing combined acute perception with an easy erudition that stemmed from wide cultural interests. Although a man of catholic musical tastes, he was a particular authority on singing."

Together with his partner Edward Sackville-West and another close friend, the painter, collector and art dealer Eardley Knollys, Shawe-Taylor set up home at Long Crichel House in Dorset, in 1945. Later they were joined by the literary critic Raymond Mortimer, another New Statesman colleague. After the death of Sackville-West, Shawe-Taylor remained at Long Crichel until his death; from 1966 he was joined there by the ophthalmic surgeon and gay rights activist Patrick Trevor-Roper.

Shawe-Taylor died suddenly at Long Crichel House on 1 November 1995, aged 88, after a country walk.