Will Hodgkinson is a journalist and author from London, England. He writes for The Guardian newspaper, 'The Times newspaper, 'Mojo magazine, and presents the Sky Arts TV show Songbook, in which he interviews contemporary songwriters.
His book "The Ballad Of Britain" (2009) (Portico) is a travelogue for which he travelled through Britain making field recordings in an attempt to capture the spirit of the place and its people. Guitar Man (2006) and Song Man (2007) (Bloomsbury) are narrative non-fiction in a comic style. In Guitar Man, Hodgkinson picked up the guitar for the first time aged 34 with the aim of playing a concert six months later. He received lessons and advice from the Scottish folk guitarist Bert Jansch, Johnny Marr, former guitarist of The Smiths, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, PJ Harvey and the pioneering guitarist Davey Graham. For Song Man he learned the basics of songwriting with the goal of recording a single at Toe-Rag Studios in London, this time picking up tips from Keith Richards, Andy Partridge of XTC, folk queen Shirley Collins and the hippy era songwriter Bridget St John. Guitar Man and Song Man are published in the US by Da Capo.
In 2007, Will launched a project in conjunction with the Guardian Newspaper to create and run a record label, 'Big Bertha', which he wrote about in a monthly column.[1] Acts signed to the label were Cornish folk band Thistletown and Pete Molinari[2] .
Will Hodgkinson is the brother of Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler. Their father is the science writer Neville Hodgkinson and their mother is the non-fiction writer Liz Hodgkinson.
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