''Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood'' is a 1952 autobiographical memoir by the English wood engraver Gwen Raverat covering her childhood in late 19th-century

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

society. The book includes anecdotes about and illustrations of many of her extended family (see

Darwin–Wedgwood family The Darwin–Wedgwood family are members of two connected families, each noted for particular prominent 18th-century figures: Erasmus Darwin, a physician and natural philosopher, and Josiah Wedgwood, a noted potter and founder of the eponymous ...

). 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

The Slade The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, 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

wood engravings Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and pr ...

by the author. The book is dedicated to her cousin

Frances Cornford Frances Crofts Cornford (née Darwin; 30 March 1886 – 19 August 1960) was an English poet. Life She was the daughter of the botanist Francis Darwin and Newnham College fellow Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (1856-1903), and born into the Darwin ...

. It was originally published by

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...

in 1952 in hardback and as a paperback in 1960. It was reviewed in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' and by David Daiches in ''

The Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' ''Period Piece'' has been translated into Danish (', 1980), Swedish (', 1985) and German (', 1991).

Family trees

The author's immediate family consisted of her father, Sir George Darwin, her mother, Lady Maud Darwin, and their four children; Gwen and her younger siblings

Charles Galton Darwin Sir Charles Galton Darwin (19 December 1887 – 31 December 1962) was an English physicist who served as director of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) during the Second World War. He was a son of the mathematician George Howard Darwin an ...

, Margaret, and William "Billy". At the very beginning of the book, two

family trees A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...

are given, one for the author's mother and one for her father. The family trees are reproduced here with minor modification:

Mother's family tree

Father's family tree

The author's father was Sir George Darwin. Her father had a large extended family. Gwen's grandfather,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

died before Gwen's birth, but his wife Emma Darwin ("Grandmama") lived until 1896. Charles and Emma had seven children who survived to adulthood - four uncles and two aunts to Gwen. All bar one of the uncles and aunts were married, and two uncles had children, resulting in five cousins: Uncles *

William Erasmus Darwin William Erasmus Darwin (27 December 18398 September 1914) was the first-born son of Charles Darwin, Charles and Emma Darwin, and the subject of Psychology, psychological studies by his father. He was educated at Rugby School and Christ's College, ...

("Uncle William") *

Sir Francis Darwin Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin (16 August 1848 – 19 September 1925) was a British botanist. He was the third son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin. Biography Francis Darwin was born in Down House, Downe, Kent in 1848. He was th ...

("Uncle Frank") *

Leonard Darwin Leonard Darwin (15 January 1850 – 26 March 1943) was an English politician, economist and eugenics, eugenicist. He was a son of the naturalist Charles Darwin, and also a mentor to Ronald Fisher, a statistician and evolutionary biologist. B ...

("Uncle Lenny") *

Sir Horace Darwin Sir Horace Darwin, (13 May 1851 – 22 September 1928), was an English engineer specializing in the design and manufacture of precision scientific instruments. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Personal life and education Dar ...

("Uncle Horace"). Aunts *

Henrietta Litchfield Henrietta Emma Litchfield (née Darwin; 25 September 1843 – 17 December 1927) was a daughter of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood. Henrietta was born at Down House, Downe, Kent, in 1843. She was Darwin's third daughter and the eldest dau ...

("Aunt Etty") * Elizabeth ("Aunt Bessy"). Uncle's and aunt's spouses * Sara (née Sedgwick - "Aunt Sara") - William's wife *

Richard Buckley Litchfield Richard Buckley Litchfield (6 January 1832 in Yarpole – 11 January 1903 in Cannes) was a British scholar and philanthropist.. Life R. B. Litchfield was the only son of Captain Richard Litchfield of Cheltenham, England. He was educated at Chelte ...

("Uncle Richard") - Aunt Etty's husband * Ellen (née Crofts, "Aunt Ellen") - Frank's second wife * Elizabeth (née Fraser, "Aunt Bee") - Leonard first wife * Mildred Massingberd - Leonard's second wife * The Hon. Ida née Farrer ("Aunt Ida") - Horace's wife. (Note: Florence Henrietta Darwin, Frank's third wife is briefly mentioned but the marriage was after the time period in the book). Cousins *

Bernard Darwin Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin CBE JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Biography ...

(son of Frank by his first wife Amy Ruck) * Frances (daughter of Frank and Aunt Ellen) *

Erasmus Darwin IV frame, 2nd Lt. Erasmus Darwin in uniform of The Green Howards. The Menin Gate. Erasmus Darwin MA (7 December 1881 – 24 April 1915) was an English businessman and soldier, killed in the First World War. He was the grandson of the naturalist ...

(son and eldest child of Horace and Ida) * Ruth (elder daughter of Horace and Ida) * Nora (younger daughter of Horace and Ida) Second cousins Although not in the trees drawn in the book, the following second cousins are also mentioned: * Ralph Wedgwood * Felix Wedgwood (brother of Ralph) *

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

Chapter synopses

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Period Piece 1952 non-fiction books British autobiographies Culture in Cambridge Faber and Faber books