Terence Greer

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Terence Greer (24 September 1929 – 5 July 2020) was a British illustrator, playwright and scriptwriter who thrived in postwar London. Born in Surbiton, he grew up attending private schools in Kew and Richmond. His mother took him to the cinema often, which shaped his visual world, and Picasso’s drawings were another key influence. After leaving school in 1947, he did National Service in the Royal Air Force, then studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art, Twickenham School of Art, and three years at the Royal Academy of Arts.

In 1953 his portfolio secured him a place with the Saxon Artists Agency. He illustrated for publications such as The Radio Times, The Listener, The Economist and New Society, and he produced many Penguin Books covers for authors including Muriel Spark and Iris Murdoch. His bold, dynamic drawings aimed to show figures just about to move. The Radio Times praised his ability to convey mood in tiny magazine spaces, and his work appeared in exhibitions like The Art of the Radio Times at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1981–82) and Artists of the Radio Times at the Ashmolean (2002).

As magazines moved toward photographs, Greer turned to writing plays. His first play, Ripper!, opened in 1973 at the Half Moon Theatre in Whitechapel. Other works followed at the Bush Theatre (Nobody Knew They Were There, 1975), Mountview (The Lay Figure, 1975) and the Young Vic (Ballroom, 1978). He was commissioned to adapt a Doctor Who story, "The Psychrons," for the BBC in 1981, but it was not produced. After time in Australia, he moved to Vancouver in 1993 with his wife, Sneja Gunew, a university professor. He died there in 2020.