Pye was born
Anna Sybella Pye in
Marylebone, an area of
London,
England, and a member of a distinguished family. She was one of seven children (four brothers and two sisters) born to Margaret Thompson Thompson Kidston, daughter of James Burns Kidston of Glasgow and William Arthur Pye JP, a successful wine merchant and collector of oriental and contemporary art. They lived in
Limpsfield, Surrey, in a house called Priest Hill. Their neighbours included a number of progressive families including
Sydney and Margaret Olivier and
Edward and
Constance Garnett and all their children became friends. Their parents entertained many literary and artistic figures of the time including
Laurence Binyon and
Thomas Sturge Moore. Sybil was in poor health in her childhood and her first job was as a teacher in a private kindergarten. Ethel and Sybil belonged to a circle of friends of
Rupert Brooke, known as the Neo-pagans, which included the
Olivier sisters and
David Garnett. When their father died in 1933, the sisters moved to Newick, Sussex, to be close to one of their brothers. Neither of them married and both lived and worked together all their lives, although Moore proposed to her and wrote the poems of
The Little School (1905) for her. She died in 1958 at the age of 79. == Work ==