Francis Wyndham was born in
London in 1924 to Violet Lutetia Leverson and
Guy Percy Wyndham. His mother was the daughter and biographer of the writer
Ada Leverson (a friend of
Oscar Wilde, whom Wilde called "Sphynx"). His father was a retired soldier and diplomat, had been a member of "
The Souls", and was significantly older than his mother ("more like a grandfather really" He graduated from
Eton in 1940, spent a year at
Oxford University and then was drafted into the army in 1942 until it was discovered he was suffering from
Tuberculosis. He was discharged and returned to London, where he began writing reviews for
The Times Literary Supplement and short stories (collected in
Out of the War). From 1953 he worked in publishing, first for Derek Verschoyle and then for
André Deutsch as a reader (where he became involved with the writing careers of, and friends with,
Bruce Chatwin,
V. S. Naipaul,
Jean Rhys and
Edward St Aubyn). He left to become an editor at
Queen magazine and in 1964 was hired by
The Sunday Times (moving with his friend
Mark Boxer), where he stayed until 1980. He became
Jean Rhys' literary executor after her death in 1979. == Selected bibliography ==