The British-American novelist, playwright and commentator Bonnie Greer has died aged 77.

In a statement, her husband David Hutchins said that she died on Tuesday evening following a brief illness.

Greer’s “intelligence, courage and distinctive voice made an enduring contribution to British cultural and public life”, said Hutchins. “To me, she was my partner, confidante and inspiration, and I feel profoundly privileged to have shared my life with her.”

“RIP Bonnie Greer,” wrote novelist Bernardine Evaristo in a social media post. “Very sad news. There was a period in the 90s/00s when Bonnie was probably the most important and high profile black cultural commentator in the UK. Other than her writing, she also sat on many important boards – representing.”

In an Instagram post, former deputy prime minister David Lammy wrote that Greer was “a powerful wordsmith and artist, she was eloquent and exacting. A true life force.”

Born on 16 November 1948, Greer moved from the US to the UK in 1986, and became a citizen in 1997.

Greer’s work – which often focused on the lives of minorities, and of women – spanned novels, nonfiction, plays and broadcasting.

Her first book, Hanging By Her Teeth, published in 1994, was a novel about a Black American woman travelling through the US and Europe in search of her father. Her later books included Obama Music (2009), about her and the former US president’s connections to Chicago’s South Side, Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction (2011), a biography of the Harlem Renaissance figure, and A Parallel Life (2014), her memoir. In 2022, she was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

She often wrote opinion pieces for publications including the Guardian, the Independent and the New Statesman.

Greer regularly appeared on panel shows, including Newsnight Review and Question Time. Appearing in a controversial Question Time episode alongside far-right British National Party leader Nick Griffin, she heard “something in the audience: a kind of singing”, she later wrote in the Guardian, and turned the experience into an opera, Yes. She served on the boards of the Royal Opera House, the British Museum and the London Film School, and was chancellor of Kingston University, London.

In the 2010 birthday honours, she was appointed OBE for contribution to the arts.

Hutchins said that “those closest to Bonnie will remember her warmth, humour, generosity and extraordinary ability to bring people together”.

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