Canonical name: Partridge, Frances
Legal name: Partridge, Frances Catherine
Other names: Marshall, Frances Catherine (birth name)
Birthdate: 1900-03-15
Date of death: 2004-02-05
Gender: female
Nationality: UK
Birthplace: Bedford Square, London, England, UK
Place of death: London, England, UK
Places of residence: Ham Spray, Wiltshire, England, UK
London, England, UK
Education: Cambridge University (Newnham College)
Bedales School
Occupations: diarist
translator
memoirist
Relationships: Partridge, Ralph (husband)
Partridge, Burgo (son)
Garnett, Ray (sister)
Garnett, David (brother-in-law)
Garnett, Henrietta (daughter-in-law)
Organizations: Bloomsbury Group
Awards and honors: Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Short biography: Frances Partridge, née Marshall, was born in London, England. Her parents were Margaret Anna Lloyd, a suffragist, and William Marshall, an architect. She was educated at Bedales School and Cambridge University. From 1922, she worked for six years at a London bookshop owned by David Garnett (whose first wife was her sister Ray) and Francis Birrell, where she met Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, Ralph Partridge, and other members of the Bloomsbury Group.
Frances married Partridge in 1933 and lived with him at Ham Spray, the Wiltshire farmhouse he had shared with Strachey and Carrington before their deaths.

The couple had one son, Burgo, who married Henrietta Garnett. After the deaths of her husband and son in 1960-1963,
Frances sold Ham Spray and moved back to London. She was a prolific translator of works by Spanish and French authors, and with Ralph, helped Lytton Strachey edit the memoirs of 19th-century political diarist Charles Greville, published in eight volumes in 1938. She also published many volumes of her own memoirs and diaries. Her writings, her survival as the last member of the Bloomsbury circle, her personal charm, and the energy she retained into extreme old age, together made her a celebrity towards the end of her long life.

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Reviews

Ups and Downs : Diaries, 1972-1975 (Vol. 7) by Frances Partridge

Francis Partridge's diaries are the record of a woman who not only participated in the lives of the legendary Bloomsbury group, but was the circle’s oldest surviving member until her death in 2004. At the age of 100, Frances Partridge decided to publish another volume of diaries which cover the years 1972-1975. Recognized as one of the great British diarists of the century, she was born in Bloomsbury in 1900, studied at Cambridge, and became part of the Bloomsbury Group, encountering Virginia Woolf, the Bells, Roger Fry and Maynard Keynes. Her diaries, written without thought of publication, chronicle a remarkable life. Beautifully written, full of an infectious enthusiasm and unending curiosity, they are utterly riveting and rank amongst the greatest diaries of the 20th century.
I have read a lot of biographies and diaries over the years and Frances Partridge's diaries are beyond anything the best I have read. Her use of language and description is so alive and interesting. Not a boring sentence in the entire book. Life is so short and I am unlikely to get back to rereading this book and I am trying to savour every bite by underlining. I cannot remember when I have underlined so much in a book in my life. I just want to somehow gobble it up and retain it and reread it and hold it somehow make it into mine. Her writing is lyrical, expressive.… (more)

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Karen74Leigh | Mar 6, 2021 |

Love in Bloomsbury by Frances Partridge

I enjoy all of Frances Partridges diaries.

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Karen74Leigh | Jan 27, 2021 |

Hanging On: Diaries 1960-1963 by Frances Partridge

Excellent reading. After the death of her beloved Ralph, Frances goes into a tailspin and this is her diary of how she survived. Frances is a very expressive writer, lots of adjectives and adverbs. Descriptive and alive.

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Karen74Leigh | Sep 4, 2019 |

Other People: Diaries, 1963-66 (Vol 4) by Frances Partridge

I give this writer top marks for observational skills and the ability to describe what she sees in a way that engages. I love her use of the English language and how she expresses what she feels about the people in her life. A very individual method of expression.Her honesty, tolerance, intelligence and insight combined with a vivid turn of phrase and an ability to evoke temperament and place have proved a popular and critical success. Rivalled only by her friend James Lees Milne, she was probably the best diarist published in English since World War II.… (more)

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Karen74Leigh | Sep 4, 2019 |

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