Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?

Subject: Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: rich-joy
Date: 03 Feb 25 - 04:13 AM

I found a track ('Scarborough Fair') by Audrey Coppard on the excellent compilation by Elijah Wald for the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown".
I was curious about this English singer becoz I cannot recall hearing of her before!
She recorded an album (English Folk Songs) for Folkways (now on Smithsonian) in 1956 of 14 folksongs, accompanied on 8 of the tracks by American guitarist, Lesley Davidson.

https://folkways.si.edu/audrey-coppard/english-folk-songs/celtic-world/music/album/smithsonian

Any Catters familiar with her and can comment on her history?? (is she still alive?) My searches online have turned up nothing (unless she is also an author? but those pages still tell me nothing about Audrey herself .....

Thanks. R-J

Subject: RE: Audrey Stoppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: DaveRo
Date: 08 Feb 25 - 04:38 AM

On the Smithsonian site you can download the liner notes which tell us that Mrs Coppard was 23 (in 1956) and a bit about her folk singing in London (concerts organised by A L Lloyd, Ewan McColl).

An Audrey Coppard also wrote a small and curious collection of books. On one of them, 'Orwell Remembered' (copy in the Internet Archive) she is merely described as the collaborator of Bernard Crick, who wrote an Orwell biography. The book originated from a BBC programme. I wonder if she worked for the BBC?

Subject: RE: Audrey Stoppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Feb 25 - 06:02 AM

Ah, thanks - I wondered if she was that Author (which still didn't divulge anything about her, LoL!!)

Subject: RE: Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 08 Feb 25 - 08:50 PM

rich-joy, I pm'd you, but it looks like Mudcat has eaten it.

Subject: RE: Audrey Stoppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 09 Feb 25 - 05:22 AM

As secretary for
The Political Quarterly Publishing Company Limited
Oxfordshire
The other key person in those years was Audrey Coppard. As Company Secretary and copy editor, Audrey was ‘the real heart of PQ’, according to Crouch. She had been Crick’s secretary when he was professor of politics at Birkbeck, had jointly written a book on Orwell with him, but carried on working for PQ after he had retired to live in Edinburgh. ,,,

During the 1990s Audrey Coppard appointed Gillian Somerscales (then Gillian Bromley) as Editorial Assistant, later to be renamed Assistant Editor. Gillian created the first formal and detailed style sheet for PQ but left in the early 2000s, to be replaced by Stephen Ball (though Audrey retained the Company Secretary role until she retired herself, then handing it over to him).   

https://politicalquarterly.org.uk/about/our-history/
.gov
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/9u8rVizzJD1YFiQ5NNrphBCehY8/appointments

Subject: RE: Audrey Stoppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 09 Feb 25 - 05:37 AM

Track list

Hares On The Mountain        
Johnny Todd        
Died Of Love        
I Will Give My Love An Apple        
The Nightingale        
The Trees Are Getting High        
Lavender (Street Cry)        
Primroses (Street Cry)        
Young Lambs ('Toy' Lambs) (Street Cry)        
I Know Where I'm Going        
The Fireman's Song        
Polly Vaughan        
Bitter Withy        
Scarborough Fair
Discogs
www.discogs.com/master/2171434-Audrey-Coppard-English-Folk-Songs

YouTube
https://youtube.com/channel/UCJ9G2uO-0a-1MISQ97I5N0A

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/7x9JRa8AgWICT1uetQ3W5R?si=OUd3jFILRkiLMyGrrVNbjg

Subject: RE: Audrey Stoppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 09 Feb 25 - 06:38 AM

Please disregard my previous post. The pm was sent, but just didn't turn up in my list of sent messages in the expected timely manner. I hope it may be of interest.

Subject: RE: Audrey Stoppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: DaveRo
Date: 09 Feb 25 - 07:53 AM

FreddyHeadey wrote: [Audrey Coppard was] Crick’s secretary when he was professor of politics at Birkbeck, had jointly written a book on Orwell with him...

What I called the "small and curious collection of books" were written in the '70s and are (all?) non-fiction for youngsters. 'Nancy of Nottingham' is about the Luddites and the effects of early industrialisatiion on traditional 'stockingers'. 'Who has Poisoned our Sea' seems to have sold well and was translated into several languages. I am rather intrigued by 'Sending Secrets, an Introduction to Codes'. (I can't find a secondhand copy of that.)

But is this the same person who sang on that record?

The Arena Orwell documentary, broadcast in 1984, is on YouTube BTW.

Subject: RE: Audrey Stoppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Feb 25 - 07:34 PM

Info from Catter, SqueezeMe (thank you!), points to an Australian connection with a probable brother/nephew in the Hill End area of NSW!
However, it was all a long time ago now, and they have both passed on - and probably Audrey Coppard too.
It would just be nice to get some background on her as I rather enjoyed her singing on that Folkways album, but had never come across the name before .....

R-J, Down Under

Subject: RE: Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: rich-joy
Date: 12 Feb 25 - 07:45 PM

Thanks, DaveRo, who seems to be continuing the search for background info on Audrey!
I am waiting for my copy of "Who Poisoned Our Sea" to arrive, just in case it includes a bio.

R-J

Subject: RE: Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: rich-joy
Date: 12 Feb 25 - 08:11 PM

I should have said before, that her 10" vinyl LP c.1956 is also available for 20 Aussie bucks on EBay, from a Sydney dealer......

Subject: RE: Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: DaveRo
Date: 13 Feb 25 - 12:22 PM

I wondered whether the Audrey Coppard that recorded the 1956 album for Folkways was the same person who wrote educational books for children and 'juveniles' in the 70's, who was Bernard Crick’s secretary when he was professor of politics at Birkbeck, and who became Company Secretary and copy editor for Political Quarterly, from which she retired in 2005 while living in Lewes in East Sussex.

This is from the sleeve notes of the 1956 album:

Mrs. Coppard is twenty-three; five years ago she first became interested in folk music when she "discovered Appalachian Mountain songs via jazz and the blues. The collecting of folk material then became a passionate hobby, but feeling how relevent to a nation's culture its folk music is, I now concentrate on my native songs and ballads. "
Audrey's father, mother, grandparents and relations are all classical musicians. Although she is not a professional singer, she had sung in clubs in London and given a number of concerts. These last were organized by A.L.Lloyd and Ewan MacColl, to whom she is indebted for introducing her to several of the songs in this collection. She is accompanied by Lesley Davison, guitar, an American girl living in London, who has, herself, a large repertoire of folk songs from both America and Europe.
The songs in this album are from widely scattered counties in England, and differ in age and content. The titles include a carol (Bitter Withy), a love song (Died of Love), a children's game song (Johnny Todd), two riddle songs (Scarborough Fair and I Will Give My Love an Apple), and three ballads (Polly Vaughan, The Trees Are Getting High, The Nightingale ). Recorded also are London 'street cries. '

The book "Nancy of Nottingham" was written in 1973, one of a series of educational books for children from Heinemann. It was reviewed in History Workshop Vol 2 (Autumn, 1976):
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288078
This is the part of the review (I can't see it all without a subscription).

... Nancy of Nottingham not only told me about the Luddites but also awakened my interest in them. By making the central character a girl coming up from the country who herself hadn't heard of the Luddites, Audrey Coppard provides a way of telling the reader about them as well as making the book even more interesting to the audience it is aimed at, i.e. children. It is set in the times of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, when countless numbers of people had their land taken by rich landowners and were forced either to work for their lords on land which had previously been their own or their friends', or to move into the growing towns and cities. Nancy, the main character, is one of these. When her mother dies having her fifth child, Nancy and her younger brother Will are sent to Nottingham to live with their uncle and aunt. Her elder brother and sister stay in the small village to look after the baby and their father, whom the squire refuses to employ. When they arrive in Nottingham everything seems very strange and crowded to them, as they are used to the quiet of a country village.
Their uncle, a frameowner and supporter of the Luddites' aims, gives them work to do. They soon learn from their uncle and his son John about the problems facing stockingers in Nottingham, about the 'cut-outs', stockings made by cutting shapes out of large pieces of material and stitching them together. These, although cheaper, fell apart more more easily than the old stockings. The cut-outs, they learnt, were stealing the trade from the old stockingers. Their uncle believes in peaceful means, like sending petitions and delegations to parliament, but John seems more sympathetic towards the Luddites; eventually, Nancy finds him writing out a Luddite song and discovers that in fact he is one. After this he takes her into his trust and she helps him to get ...

It seems to me not unlikely that the singer who associated with Ewan MacColl, who sung industrial ballads, would write about the Luddites - and introduce a song into the plot.

I watched the first part of the BBC Arena Orwell programme from 1984 on YouTube. It covered his schooldays, his time in Burma, and up to writing Down and Out. A good old-style documentary.

Subject: RE: Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 07:26 AM

Rich-joy, I have a copy of that LP. I might get around to copying it to give you next time I see you.

Subject: RE: Audrey Coppard (England, c.1956) - bio?
From: rich-joy
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 07:47 PM

Cheers, Rog!!   :)