He has been described as "one of the most revered guitarists of his generation", and has drawn praise from fellow musicians including Steve Rothery, Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page.

Thereafter he was brought up in Deptford, South East London spending the first 11 years of his life at 43 Elverson Road, a two up, two down terraced house shared by two households with an outside toilet.

Giltrap's career began in the 1960s performing in the folk music scene in London alongside contemporaries such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and Mike Oldfield.

On some of the songs he experimented with early instruments (played by Douglas Wooton and Rod and Joseph Sleeping) and some of his lyrics clearly reflected an interest in historical events.

During this time, Giltrap started to concentrate on more purely instrumental pieces, and in 1976 released the album Visionary, based on the art and poetry of William Blake.

[14] Visionary was produced by Jon Miller, who along with guitarist Roger Hand and keyboard player Rod Edwards[15] were known as Triumvirate Productions.

[16][17] Hand and Edwards, having listened to demos of some of the material for Visionary, decided that it was time for Giltrap to be dragged, initially reluctantly, into the realm of rock music.

"Heartsong" was eventually nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for the best instrumental/ orchestral piece for that year, losing to Elton John's "Song for Guy".

It appeared occasionally to be more keyboard dominated but Giltrap was unperturbed by this as the pieces were his own compositions and he was pleased with the arrangements which he had worked on with Rod Edwards and Roger Hand.

In 1979, Giltrap toured the Fear of the Dark album with a band that consisted of John Gustafson on bass, who was active in the early Mersey scene and a top session player, and Ian Mosley on drums, who went on to work with Steve Hackett and latterly became a full-time member of Marillion.

A previous book entitled The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast had inspired an album by Roger Glover of Deep Purple which featured a host of stars.

As previously mentioned, Giltrap had decided at this stage to move away from more commercial music[31] and concentrate solely upon self-penned intricate guitar pieces.

When he finished recording, he embarked on a small tour in his favoured trio format which featured Ric Sanders on violin and long-term ally Eddie Spence on keyboards.

This diversion concluded at a tricky time in his life when his first marriage broke up and his mother, with whom he was very close, died at age 58 having contracted cancer .

Initially planned as music for TV, radio, film or other non-commercial use[33] the recordings gradually morphed into an album which was eventually released.

[34] Giltrap's life during this time went through a turbulent stage with the loss of his father at age 66, the fact he had two children to bring up and meeting Hilary, who was to become his second wife.

"Sallie's Song" was inspired by a commission Giltrap received for the TV series Hold the Back Page starring David Warner and directed by Adrian Shergold.

He wished to re-record "Heartsong" with famous friends Brian May, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, Midge Ure and Neil Murray.

This play was loosely based on the actions of child killer Mary Bell and featured Giltrap in a cameo role as a newspaper seller strumming a guitar.

In 1995, Giltrap was invited by Cliff Richard to take part in his West End musical Heathcliff, which was based upon the Wuthering Heights novel by Charlotte Brontë.

Heathcliff reached an audience of nearly half a million people during its run and broke box-office records at almost every theatre at which the production was staged.

When he heard that the album was going to include a version of "A Misunderstood Man", Cliff Richard approached Giltrap and volunteered to sing backing vocals on the track.

This is amply demonstrated by Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", a track which Jansch had played in his unique style and which Giltrap followed faithfully in his interpretation of the song.

Giltrap performed most pieces himself but on a couple of tracks he enlisted the help of guitarist Neville Marten and, once again, the flautist Hilary Ashe-Roy.

Giltrap had previously received a call from somebody who worked for music publishing company wondering if he could write a piece in the style of Django Reinhardt.

It was basically created to feature the sound of a Rob Armstrong guitar which had been designed as part of a research project and was made entirely out of a plastic polymer.

Etheridge, however, then committed to the project and Carrol was asked to join the group which then became Four Parts Guitar, thus forming a collaboration which worked well for several more years.

The band headlined the Summer's End prog rock festival to great acclaim and, their live show proved to be an enormous success.

In a 2019 interview, he stated: "There truly is only one (person I'd like to collaborate with) and that has to be Pete Townshend, not just because he is cited as an influence on the way I play the guitar, but the power and eloquence of his creativity.

Giltrap has continued to tour the UK playing smaller, more intimate venues occasionally supported by Nick Hooper or Carrie Martin.