Ysenda Maxtone Graham
Author of Terms & Conditions: Life in Girls' Boarding-Schools, 1939-1979
About the Author
Works by Ysenda Maxtone Graham
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Maxtone Graham, Ysenda May
- Birthdate
- 1962-12-31
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Cambridge, England, UK - Education
- Girton College, Cambridge
- Occupations
- journalist
biographer
children's book author - Relationships
- Struther, Jan (grandparent)
- Short biography
- Ysenda Maxtone Graham reported for Harpers & Queen and Tatler. She has written a biography of her grandmother Jan Struther (pen name of Joyce Maxtone Graham), creator of the beloved Mrs. Miniver character.
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Reviews
The Real Mrs Miniver by Ysenda Maxtone Graham
World War 2
Not as charmingly jaw-dropping as Terms and Conditions, but still a delightful nostalgia trip through the awfulness/glory of the British summer holiday. Which barely overlapped at all with my NZ summer memories of swimming in rivers, living in a pup tent, and exploring beaches and bush; how lucky we were.
Enthralling account of life at a girls' boarding school, a foreign subject to me but one which will wash some readers away in waves of aching nostalgia/trauma. The author has interviewed numerous Old Girls and Very Old Girls, most a bit posh, and has a delicious way with deadpan anecdote and spinning atmosphere and narrative out of multiple voices. Also it's frequently hilarious. I wanted to buy about 20 copies and give one to all the funny clever women I knew who (boarding school or not) would surely recognise elements of their childhood in its pages.… (more)
A wonderful read, written by the granddaughter of the creator of "Mrs. Miniver", who lifted many a spirit with her portraits of daily life in an upper middle class household. As the film version of Mrs. Miniver was rather far removed from the fiction created by Joyce Maxtone Graham (alias Jan Struther), so Joyce's "real life" was very different from that of her light-hearted, happily married heroine. This book is a fascinating portrait of the woman herself. Highly recommended.
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Statistics
- Works
- 27
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 335
- Popularity
- #71,019
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 10
- ISBNs
- 36
- Languages
- 5