Myfanwy Piper (1911–1997)

Myfanwy Piper, née Mary Myfanwy Evans, was born in London to a Welsh father and an English mother. She attended North London Collegiate School, which enabled her to win a scholarship to read English Language and Literature at Oxford University. Her interests in modern art and literature were encouraged by her friendships with Justin Blanco-White, Nicolete Binyon Gray, and Ivon Hitchens. French painter Jean Helion encouraged her to found and edit Axis (1935-1937), a review devoted to abstract art. In 1937, she married artist John Piper and they moved to a farmhouse in rural Fawley Bottom, Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames and had four children. Their home became became the focus of a group of friends that included John and Penelope Betjeman, Geoffrey Grigson, and Osbert and Karen Lancaster. Kenneth Clark commissioned Myfanwy to write a biography of Frances Hodgkins for the Penguin Modern Painters series, published in 1948. Between 1954 and 1973, Myfanwy collaborated with composer Benjamin Britten on the libretti for three of his operas, and between 1977 and 1981 with composer Alun Hoddinott on most of his operatic works. She also adapted Søren Kierkegaard's novel The Diary of a Seducer into a 1958 play called The Seducer. John Betjeman wrote several poems addressing her, such as "Myfanwy" and "Myfanwy at Oxford."