Period Piece (book)
Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood is an autobiographical memoir by Gwen Raverat covering her childhood in late 19th Century Cambridge society. The book includes anecdotes about illustrations of, many of her extended family (see Darwin–Wedgwood family).
As the author explains in the preface it is "a circular book" and although it begins with the meeting of her parents (Sir George Darwin and Maud du Puy) and ends with Gwen as a student at Slade it is not written chronologically, but rather arranged in a series of fifteen themed chapters, each dealing with a particular aspects of life. The book is illustrated throughout with line drawings by the author.
The book is dedicated to her cousin Frances Cornford.
It was originally published by Faber & Faber in 1952 in hardback (ISBN 1-904555-12-8) and as a paperback (ISBN 0-571-06742-5) in 1960. It was reviewed in The Times and by David Daiches in The Manchester Guardian
Read more about Period Piece (book): Family Trees, Chapter Synopses
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