Ups and Downs: Diaries 1972-75
Condition: SECONDHAND
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At the age of 100, Frances Partridge has had a new lease of life and decided she would like to publish another volume of diaries which covers the years 1972-75. Now recognised as one of the great British diarists of the century, she was born in Bloomsbury in 1900, the daughter of a progressive mother and architect father whose friends included Henry James and Arthur Conan Doyle. After studying Moral Sciences and English at Cambridge, she worked in a bookshop in London and became part of the Bloomsbury Group, encountering Virginia Woolf, the Bells, Roger Fry and Maynard Keynes. She met and fell in love with Ralph Partridge who was at the time married to Dora Carrington. After the death of Lytton Strachey, with whom she was in love, Carrington committed suicide. Ralph and Frances married in 1933. During the war they were both committed pacifists and opened their house, Ham Spray, to numerous strays of war. After it was over they enjoyed the happiest time of their life together, entertaining friends such as E.M. Forster, Robert Kee and Duncan Grant. This life of great warmth and friendship was brought to an abrupt end when Ralph died of a heart attack in 1960.
Three years later another tragedy struck when their only son, Burgo, died at the age of 28 from a brain haemorrhage. Despite such enormous suffering, Frances maintained an astonishing appetite for life, whether for her friends, travelling, botany, or music. Her diaries, written without thought of publication, chronicle a remarkable life.
Author: Frances Partridge
Format: Hardback, 288 pages, 146mm x 224mm, 554 g
Published: 2001, Orion Publishing Co, United Kingdom
Genre: Anthologies, Essays, Letters & Miscellaneous
Description
At the age of 100, Frances Partridge has had a new lease of life and decided she would like to publish another volume of diaries which covers the years 1972-75. Now recognised as one of the great British diarists of the century, she was born in Bloomsbury in 1900, the daughter of a progressive mother and architect father whose friends included Henry James and Arthur Conan Doyle. After studying Moral Sciences and English at Cambridge, she worked in a bookshop in London and became part of the Bloomsbury Group, encountering Virginia Woolf, the Bells, Roger Fry and Maynard Keynes. She met and fell in love with Ralph Partridge who was at the time married to Dora Carrington. After the death of Lytton Strachey, with whom she was in love, Carrington committed suicide. Ralph and Frances married in 1933. During the war they were both committed pacifists and opened their house, Ham Spray, to numerous strays of war. After it was over they enjoyed the happiest time of their life together, entertaining friends such as E.M. Forster, Robert Kee and Duncan Grant. This life of great warmth and friendship was brought to an abrupt end when Ralph died of a heart attack in 1960.
Three years later another tragedy struck when their only son, Burgo, died at the age of 28 from a brain haemorrhage. Despite such enormous suffering, Frances maintained an astonishing appetite for life, whether for her friends, travelling, botany, or music. Her diaries, written without thought of publication, chronicle a remarkable life.
Ups and Downs: Diaries 1972-75