Shirley Collins was born on 5 July 1935 in Hastings, Sussex, England and as at Oct 2008 still lives in the county in the town of Lewes. Her elder sister Dolly Collins was born on 6th March 1933 and died 22 September 1995. Shirley tells much of the story of her young life in her book 'America Across The Water' which also details her trip with Alan Lomax recording and cataloging (aka 'discovering') the music of the deep South of America in the 1950s. The sisters grew up in the Hastings area of East Sussex in a family which kept alive a great love of traditional song. Traditional songs learnt from their grandfather and from their mother’s sister, Grace Winborn, were to be important in the sisters’ repertoire throughout their career.
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