The Bookshop at the End of the Internet

Author Marcia Menter discusses her new book, That Voice: In Search of Ann Drummond-Grant, the Singer Who Shaped My Life. Part biography and part memoir, the book details the life of Scottish contralto, Ann Drummond-Grant (known as Drummie) who died during the prime of her career in 1959. Drummie sang lead roles for the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, a famous Gilbert and Sullivan troupe that toured Great Britain for over a hundred years. Years after Drummie’s death, Marcia was a young teen in upstate New York when she discovered Drummie’s legendary singing voice. That discovery impacted Marcia so profoundly that she spent years learning (or as she puts it, failing to learn) how to sing.