Frances Partridge: A Biography

The authorized biography of the last survivor of the Bloomsbury group is beautifully illustrated with many previously unpublished photos from Chisholm's private collection. Frances Partridge was one of the great British diarists of the 20th century. She became part of the Bloomsbury group, encountering Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, the Bells, Roger Fry, Maynard Keynes, Dora Carrington, and Ralph Partridge. Anne Chisholm was allowed complete access to unpublished diaries, letters, photographs, and papers for this vividly evocative tribute. She tells the story of Anne and Ralph falling in love and marrying in 1933, and how during World War II they were committed pacifists and enjoyed the happiest times of their lives together, entertaining friends such as E.M. Forster, Robert Kee, and Duncan Grant. Chisholm explores how despite losing both her husband and son, Frances maintained an astonishing appetite for life, whether for her friends, traveling, botany, or music. This biography is the perfect complement to her diaries, which she continued to write until her death in 2004, and which chronicle her life from the 1930s onwards.