Vivien Greene (''née'' Dayrell-Browning; 1 August 1904Richard Greene (ed.), ''Graham Greene: A Life in Letters''. London: Little, Brown, 2007, p. 10 (citing her birth certificate). – 19 August 2003) was a British writer regarded as the world's foremost expert on dolls' houses. She was the wife of the distinguished novelist

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

Norman Sherry Norman Sherry FRSL (6 July 1925 – 19 October 2016) was an English novelist, biographer, and educator who was best known for his three-volume biography of the British novelist Graham Greene. He was professor of English literature at Lancaster ...

The 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 ...

'', 23 August 2003

Early life

Vivien Dayrell-Browning was born in

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

. As a child she spent her pocket-money collecting dolls' house furniture. She had a difficult childhood: her father had an

affair An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...

and her mother left him, requiring Vivien at the age of fifteen to write him a letter ending their relationship. She published her first book ''The Little Wings'', a collection of poetry and prose, when she was fifteen; it had an introduction by

G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...

, who was a family friend. She began working for

Basil Blackwell Sir Basil Henry Blackwell (29 May 18899 April 1984) was born in Oxford, England. He was the son of Benjamin Henry Blackwell (18491924), founder of Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford, which went on to become the Blackwell family's publishing and booksh ...

when she was fifteen.

Marriage, family and separation

Dayrell-Browning started a correspondence with Graham Greene in 1925. A staunch convert to Roman Catholicism, she rejected his initial proposal of marriage because he was an atheist. Following his conversion, they married on 15 October 1927 at

St Mary's Church, Hampstead St Mary's Church, formerly St Mary's Chapel, is a Grade II* listed Roman Catholic church in Hampstead, London, UK. History St Mary's was the first Catholic church to be built in Hampstead after the English Reformation of the 16th century. The ...

, London. The Greenes had two children, Lucy Caroline (born 1933) and Francis Hugh (born 1936). Graham left his family in 1947 and they formally separated in 1948, but in accordance with

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

teaching the couple were never divorced and the marriage lasted until Graham's death in 1991.

Dolls' house collecting

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Vivien and her children lived in Oxford after their home in London had been bombed. At a local auction she was charmed by a derelict Regency town house which she bought for £5 and took home on the bus with her. As the war dragged on and her marriage disintegrated, she devoted herself to restoring and furnishing the

doll's house A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home made in miniature. Since the early 20th century dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children, but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. English-speakers in North America ...

. Materials were scarce; she recalled scraping off old paint and wallpaper with shards of broken glass. "I needed a hobby, the wartime evenings in the black-out were long and dark, so I started to furnish the house, to make carpets and curtains for it." She then began seeking out other antique dolls' houses and furnishings with her friend the historian

A. J. P. Taylor Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was a British historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his televis ...

researching their history, and restoring the houses, filling the Greenes' rented home with her miniature world. After Graham had abandoned his family, she travelled the world to add to her collection, becoming a noted authority in the field of antique dolls' houses between 1700 and 1900 and their social history and craftsmanship. The earliest item in her collection was a William-and-Mary house built in oak in about 1690 in the shape of a cabinet, suitable to be displayed in a drawing room. Dolls' houses were initially created as a status symbol, built as a replica of the owner's home or as an ornament on a staircase landing. Only after the 1840s were they intended for children. After her children left home, Greene began a personal mission to view, draw and catalogue any historic dolls' houses she could discover before they, and the great English country houses in which they were found, disappeared in the postwar world. As many as possible she restored to their original grandeur, paying great attention to historical authenticity. Greene's first book ''English Dolls' Houses of the 18th and 19th Centuries'' (1955) is credited with convincing dealers and museum curators that doll's houses were a serious field of study and required conservation. Her notes record 1,500 dolls' houses that she examined in North America, Europe and South Africa. In 1962 she even made the journey through

Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991), as named by the Western Allies. East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuv ...

to Communist

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

to research the original plans of 19th century makers of miniature furniture based at , near

Waltershausen Waltershausen is a town in the south-western part of the district of Gotha in the state of Thuringia, Germany. Geography Geographic location Located on the verge of the Thuringian Basin just before the Thuringian Forest, Waltershausen is so ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

. In 1962 she built the Rotunda as a doll's house museum in the grounds of her home near Oxford, incorporating the spiral staircase from the

St James's Theatre The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham; it lost money and after three seasons he retired. A succ ...

. The museum was partially funded by Graham Greene and opened by

Sir Albert Richardson Sir Albert Edward Richardson (London, 19 May 1880 – 3 February 1964) was a leading English architect, teacher and writer about architecture during the first half of the 20th century. He was Professor of Architecture at University College Lond ...

, who later donated a dolls' house. By the mid-1990s, the Rotunda contained over 50 miniature castles, cottages and manors, all furnished down to the last tiny piece of porcelain, dating from c. 1700 to 1886. The focus was specifically on the craftsmanship, and only children over sixteen years were allowed to visit on the monthly opening to the public. Her collection was auctioned off in London in 1998. A cat lover, she was a supporter of the Protection of Tigers League.

Death

Vivien Dayrell-Browning Greene died on 19 August 2003 in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, at the age of 99.Danielle Demetriou
"Graham Greene's widow Vivien dies at 98"
''The Independent'', 21 August 2003, like other obituaries, gets her year of birth and age at death wrong.

Publications

*''The Little Wings: Poems and Essays'' (1921) (as Vivienne Dayrell) *''English Dolls' Houses of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries'' (1955) *''Family Dolls' Houses'' (1973) *''The Vivien Greene Dolls' House Collection'' (1995) (with Margaret Towner) *''Laurel for Libby: A Story with Cuts'' (2006)

References