I remember first being asked to join the Critics Group while I was re-wiring the lights of their home in 1968. I dithered about taking the giant step leaving family and friends and moving from from the North of England to London - no home or job to go to.
We sat down and discussed it for a couple of hours and he and Peggy offered me their hospitality for as long as it took to find lodgings and work.
It took me nearly a month to get settled - not because work or accommodation were difficult to find in London in the sixties, but because, every day I found it near impossible to tear myself away from the inevitable discussions on songs and ballads, on theatre, on literature, on politics, (not to mention the private excericise he put me through in order to catch up with the work of the Critics Group) - probably the most memorable four weeks of my life.
My abiding memory of both Ewan and Peggy is of two insprational and extremely generous people who dedicated their lives to understanding, performing and passing on what they considered to be the songs of the people - that's the memory that remains with me still, that's the memory that will remain with me for the rest of my life.
Jim Carroll