Wyndham, Joan ___ 1921-2007 ___ British ___ writer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Born in Wiltshire, Wyndham was educated at a Catholic boarding school in London, but then went to study theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. However, the war interrupted her training and she was drafted into the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. After the war, she married Maurice Rowdon, and accompanied him to Baghdad where he lectured for two years. They had one daughter, Clare. An affair with their London lodger, Shura Shivarg, led to divorce, a second marriage, and a second daughter, Camilla. Wyndham opened Oxford’s first espresso bar (an achievement which seems to be hung about her neck like a medal), and also ran a hippy restaurant in London’s Portobello Road for a while. She cooked at major pop festivals and catered for actors, and wrote on cookery for women’s magazines. Her diaries, which have been published in several versions, are considered lively and colourful. The newspaper ‘Scotland on Sunday’called her ‘A latter-day Pepys in camiknickers’.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1939-1990 ___ social travel love/sex childhood family

WEB TEXT LINKS
one extract (explicit)
several quotes

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Love Lessons; A Wartime Diary
Love is Blue; A Wartime Diary
 

May 2005, August 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.