Period Piece (book)

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Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood is an autobiographical work by Gwendoline Mary "Gwen" Raverat (née Darwin; 26 August 1885-11 February 1957), the daughter of George Howard Darwin and Maud du Puy.

As the author explains in the preface it is "a circular book" - and although it begins with the meeting of her parents and ends with Gwen as a student at Slade is not written chronologically, but rather arranged in a series of fifteen themed chapters, each dealing with a particular aspects of life such as "Education", "Sport", "Ghosts and Horrors".

The book is illustrated throughout with line drawings by the author.

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.

Darwin College, Cambridge. The Old Granary to the left was part of the Darwin family home and Period Piece describes it being afflicted by flooding from the River Cam