Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs

Gwen Raverat, a granddaughter of Charles Darwin, recalls growing up in Cambridge among the Darwin family in the late Victorian era. With wit and her own drawings, she describes her eccentric aunts and uncles, the strict rules of upper-middle-class life, governesses, clothes, manners and holidays. Raverat, who became a wood engraver, captures the oddities of a vanished world with affection and sharp humor. First published in 1952, the memoir has remained in print ever since.

Recommended by 1 person

• Paul Graham: “Gwen Raverat's Period Piece is startlingly good, maybe the best book I've read this year.”