She's been in the wars in the last couple of years – two back operations (one following an attempted dive that turned into a bellyflop), a mastectomy and, most recently, stomach surgery that nearly proved fatal. Yet Seeger remains as passionate and uncompromising as ever. She's 79 now, and as she pours coffee in the rambling garden of the house she shares with her partner, Irene Pyper-Scott, the setting is so idyllic you expect Miss Marple to pop up any minute. More than half a century on, their work still provokes ferocious debate. Meanwhile, the Radio Ballads, the groundbreaking documentaries the pair made with Charles Parker, made regional accents acceptable in a broadcasting industry dominated by clipped home counties. Her partnership with Ewan MacColl created the most famous and controversial folk club in the land, the Singers Club, and helped both to revive folk and align it more closely with leftwing politics. Back in the 1950s, this American interloper changed the face of British music – and broadcasting, too. 'I miss the sea sometimes," says Peggy Seeger wistfully, "but if you listen closely enough the A4142 sounds like the sea …" Transforming the Oxford ring road into an ocean is quite a leap of the imagination, but nothing seems beyond bounds where Seeger is concerned.
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