Marianne Faithfull - Early Life

Early Life

Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London. Her father, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, was a British Army officer and professor of psychology. Her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso, was originally from Vienna, with aristocratic roots in the Habsburg Dynasty and Jewish ancestry on her maternal side. Erisso was a ballerina for the Max Reinhardt Company during her early years, and danced in productions of works by the German theatrical duo Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Faithfull's maternal great great uncle was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the 19th century Austrian nobleman whose erotic novel, Venus in Furs, spawned the word "masochism". In regard to her roots in nobility, Faithfull commented in March 2007 prior to beginning the European leg of her tour, "I'm even going to Budapest, which is nice because I'm half English and half Austro-Hungarian. I've inherited the title Baroness Sacher-Masoch—it comes from one of my great uncles who gave his name to masochism."

The family originally lived in Ormskirk, Lancashire, while her father completed a doctorate at Liverpool University. She spent some of her early life at the commune formed by her father at Braziers Park, Oxfordshire. After her parents divorced when she was six years old, she moved with her mother to Milman Road in Reading, Berkshire. Her primary school was in Brixton, London. Living in rather reduced circumstances, Faithfull's girlhood was marred by bouts with tuberculosis and her charity boarder status at St Joseph's Convent School. While at St. Joseph's, she was also a member of the Progress Theatre's student group.