Alasdair George Stuart Clayre (9 October 1935 – 10 January 1984) was a Britishauthor, broadcaster,singer-songwriter, andacademic.

Clayre was born inSouthampton,Hampshire on 9 October 1935.^[1] He won a scholarship toWinchester College, where he became head boy, and a further scholarship toChrist Church, Oxford^[2] where, as anundergraduate, his intellect was compared to that ofIsaiah Berlin. He graduated with a congratulatory first class degree - the highest class of degree awarded at Oxford (seeBritish undergraduate degree classification) - and won a Prize Fellowship toAll Souls College - one of the highest academic honours in the United Kingdom.^[3]

Clayre recorded two albums of songs including many of his own compositions:Alasdair Clayre (Elektra Records) andAdam and the Beasts (Folkways Records). He also appears on the Elektra folk song compilationA Cold Wind Blows. His English translation of "La Colombe" (The Dove") byJacques Brel has been recorded byJudy Collins andJoan Baez. Another of his compositions,Train Song, has been recorded byVashti Bunyan (who also co-wrote the song),^[4] whileAdam and the Beasts has been recorded byBarry Dransfield andShusha Guppy.

Clayre marriedFelicity Bryan in 1974. They divorced in 1980.^[2]

Clayre took his own life in 1984 byjumping in front of a train inNorth London.^[5]

• The Heart of the Dragon (London: Collins, 1984),^[6] based on a TV series he produced, wrote, directed and presented about China at a time when the country was just opening up to the West^[7]
• Nature and Industrialisation: an Anthology (Oxford:Oxford University Press in association with the Open University, 1977)
• The Political Economy of Co-operation and Participation: a Third Sector (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980)
• Work and Play: Ideas and Experience of Work and Leisure (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974)^[8]
• The Impact of Broadcasting; or, Mrs Buckle's Wall is Singing (Salisbury: Compton Russell, 1973), which includes a foreword byAsa Briggs
• 100 Folk Songs and New Songs, a songbook which he compiled; some of the new songs are his own compositions^[9]
• A Fire by the Sea (London: Calypso Press, 1965; 2nd edn Salisbury: Compton Russell, 1973), a book of poems
• The Window (n.p.: Cape, 1961)
• Dialogue (Newport: n.p., 1959), co-edited with P. Jay

• 1935 births
• Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
• British broadcasters
• Elektra Records artists
• English male singer-songwriters
• English singer-songwriters
• Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
• History of mental health in the United Kingdom
• Writers from Southampton
• People educated at Winchester College
• Suicides by train
• Suicides in Highgate, Greater London
• 20th-century English singers
• 1984 suicides
• 1984 deaths
• 20th-century English male writers
• 20th-century British male singers
• Musicians from Southampton

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2019