Clayre Percy

Without a blush or a yawn

issue 09 October 2004

Joan Wyndham has written two war diaries, and one postwar autobiography; now she completes the picture with a description, part diary, part straight narrative, of her life as a child, a schoolgirl and a student at Rada. Her first three books were the story of an uninhibited bohemian. This one starts gently.

Joan Wyndham began her life at Clouds. To see that most famous of Arts and Crafts houses not through the eyes of an architectural historian but through the eyes of a small child who actually lived there is a good way to begin. Unfortun- ately she did not stay there for long. Her parents’ marriage foundered and the scene changed to Evelyn Gardens in Fulham.

At this point Joan’s mother, Iris, temporarily becomes the central figure and the author backtracks in a slightly muddling way.

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