Richard Stilgoe

Richard Stilgoe has spent 50 years as a performer and writer in all forms of the performing arts. He wrote lyrics for Cats, Starlight Express, The Phantom of the Opera, The Magistrate and Road Rage, and music and lyrics for Bodywork, Brilliant the Dinosaur and Orpheus - the Mythical. His broadcasting work has earned him the New York Radio Festival Gold Award, three Monaco Festival Prizes and the Prix Italia. In 1997, he founded the Orpheus Centre in Surrey, where young disabled people prepare for independent living through a series of performing arts courses. He was high sheriff of Surrey in 1998, during which year he was awarded the OBE. He owns and drives a JCB, and has 5 children and 13 grandchildren. In the jubilee honours list of 2012, Richard was knighted for charitable service through the Alchemy Foundation.