Louis Barfe

Louis Barfe (born 13 June 1973 in Epsom, Surrey) is an English writer of non-fiction. A Politics graduate of Lancaster University, he worked as a journalist on the book trade magazine Publishing News from 1998 to 2002, and as a freelance journalist has worked extensively for Private Eye, The Oldie and Radio Times, and has also written for the New Statesman, The Independent, The Guardian and the Sunday Telegraph. He was, until June 2005, the deputy editor of Crescendo and Jazz Music magazine. Since 2005 he has appeared extensively on BBC Radio Norfolk, mostly on the afternoon show, with Graham Barnard, Chris Goreham, Roy Waller and Stephen Bumfrey, talking about archive television, and has contributed to programmes on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live.

His first book, Where Have All the Good Times Gone? The rise and fall of the record industry, was published in 2004 by Atlantic Books. Atlantic also published his second, Turned Out Nice Again: the story of British light entertainment, which came out in 2008; and has commissioned him to write a biography of the comedian Les Dawson. Barfe's interests in architecture, technology and jazz have featured heavily on his blog.

He lives in Dursley, Gloucestershire with his wife, daughter and two dogs, and stood in the Waveney constituency as an independent candidate in the 2010 General Election, polling 106 votes for the NOTA (None of the Above) Protest Vote movement. However, shortly after the election Barfe defected to the Green Party.