November 2020

Robert Edward Layton was born in Chadwell Heath, east London, on May 2, 1930, the younger of two children to a stockbroker and his wife. Layton recalled that at the age of 14 he had a large collection of 78 rpm records, adding: "My mother…

Robert Layton, the last surviving member of the triumvirate who wrote the Penguin Guide, died at the age of 90. Alongside Edward Greenfield and Ivan March, both Gramophone critics, he guided a few generations to the best classical…