In Praise of Ginger Ninjas

A short while ago, in response to the Guardian's 'pink list,' I wrote a list of Britain's hottest gingers. Included on that list was acclaimed journalist Ginny Dougary - the lyricist behind the curious comedy David Blunkett: The Musical.

Ginny's fantastic. It takes a real offbeat genius to turn the life and loves of a former Home Secretary into a Greek tragedy and she didn't rest on her laurels after accomplishing that.

In between spanning the Atlantic and interviewing a slew of living legends (in the last six months alone, that list includes Martin Amis, Lord Tebbit and awards junkie Al Gore) she banged out another musical number concerning a subject very close to my heart.

Gingerism.

I first heard about Ginny Dougary just weeks before I left for America, when the producers of F**k off, I'm Ginger (the television show I was on, which seems to still be on eternal repeat on BBC 3) gave me her telephone number and asked me to give her a call.

Ginger Ginny had written a chorale piece about the hardships of growing up ginger - and very kindly invited me (and the rest of the F**k Off, I'm Ginger cast) to the premiere performance of her work at the fringe festival in Brighton.

You can listen to the follow up performance, at the Royal Festival Hall, here.

Not only that, but she also mentioned "a copper-haired, freckle-faced copywriter" in her follow up article about Ginger Chorale and I've got a sneaking suspicion that might have been me!

Unfortunately I never got the chance to thank Ginny, since her email address doesn't seem to like me and I can't leave comments on her website. So I just thought I'd commit a brief message to the ocean of the Internet (rather like leaving a message in a bottle) in the hopes that one day, she'd discover my appreciation.