Polly Samson is an English novelist, lyricist and journalist. She is married to musician David Gilmour, and has written the lyrics to many of Gilmour's works, both as a solo artist and with the group Pink Floyd.
Life and career
Samson's father was Lance Samson, a newspaper editor and diplomatic correspondent for the Morning Star, and her mother was a writer of Chinese descent, Esther Cheo Ying, who wrote a memoir, Black Country to Red China, about her time serving as a Major in Mao Zedong's Red Army. Following a troubled childhood, Samson joined the publishing industry, through which she met the writer Heathcote Williams, with whom she became romantically involved during the publication of his Whale Nation, Samson being responsible for publicising what she succeeded in turning into a best-selling volume despite its author's reluctance to promote his work. With Williams she had her first son, Charlie. Following his birth, Samson became homeless and was taken in for a period by the journalist Cassandra Jardine. After splitting from Williams, Samson met Pink Floyd singer and guitarist David Gilmour, whom she married in 1994 during Pink Floyd's Division Bell tour. Her son Charlie was adopted by Gilmour and they have three other children: Joe, Gabriel, and Romany. She has also written short stories for BBC Radio 4 and has had a collection published Lying in Bed and a novel, Out of the Picture, as well as contributing pieces and stories to many other books and publications including Gas and Air, Girls Night In, A Day in the Life, and The Just When Stories. Samson's collection of stories, Perfect Lives, was published in November 2010 by Virago Press. Her novel, The Kindness, was published in 2015. Samson is credited as a co-writer on seven of The Division Bells 11 tracks, and, with the retrospective credit given to Clare Torry for her vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky", she is one of only two female co-writers of any Pink Floyd songs. She also wrote lyrics for Gilmour's 2006 album, On an Island, and made a guest appearance on piano and vocals. She contributed lyrics to "Louder than Words", the only track on Pink Floyd's 2014 release, The Endless River, to contain any sung lyrics. Samson has also contributed lyrics to half of the tracks on Gilmour's latest album, Rattle That Lock, some of which were inspired by Paradise Lost, an epic poem by John Milton. In 2018, Samson was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Samson's novel, A Theatre For Dreamers, was published on 2 April 2020 by Bloomsbury Circus. The novel entered the Sunday Times Bestsellers Chart at number two.
