Shusha Guppy was born into a distinguished traditional family in Persia and grew up in an atmosphere of poetry and mystical chants. In her teens she went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. At the same time she trained as a singer, and learnt the French Chanson in its rich variety. A chance encounter with poet Jacques Prevert led to her singing professionally, and recording an album of 'Persian Love Songs', while extending her repertoire to French songs - From the Middle Ages, through the Pleiade Poets, to modern songs of Prevert, Brel, Brassens, to today.

Following her marriage to an English author, Shusha settled in London in the 60's, and began singing an Anglo-American repertoire of folksongs, the works of contemporaries- Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, and others - and increasingly her own songs.

Shusha started her recording career appropriately with an album of 'Persian Love Songs and Mystic Chants' followed by another of contemporary English songs, 'The Songs of Long-Time Lovers' (Tangent Records). The success of these led to contracts with other major record companies. To date she has produced 12 albums of her own and other songwriter's works, including a collection of French chansons: 'La Fortune', a record of songs by English poets, 'Durable Fire', and a second album of Persian traditional, 'From East to West'.

As a writer Shusha Guppy's first book, 'The Blindfold Horse', was published in 1988 to great acclaim and won the Yorkshire Post Prize for the best non-fiction book and a prize from the Royal Society of Literature. 'A Girl in Paris' followed in 1991 and was equally well received (both published by William Heinemann) as was 'Looking Back - A Panoramic View of a Literary Age' (Simon & Shuster 1993).

In the 70's Shusha travelled with the nomadic Bakhtiari tribes of Southern Persia on their spring migration and made two films: 'People of the Wind' (A Persian Odyssey) - a long documentary, which won an Oscar nomination - and a short film of Shusha singing along the journey. A record of the former film's music was released later.

Shusha lives in London. She is the London Editor of the American literary journal 'The Paris Review' and contributes to a number of national and transatlantic publications. She gives concerts regularly, appears on television and radio, and takes part in international conferences, giving talks on a variety of cross-cultural subjects. These are sometimes accompanies by recital of songs from her rich repertoire.