Daphne Phelps (23 June 191130 November 2005) was a British writer who spent most of her life in

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Life

Phelps attended St Felix School, Southwold, Suffolk, and trained in psychiatric social work at St Anne's College, Oxford, and at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

. Just after the end of World War II, she inherited Casa Cuseni, an elegant villa with elaborate gardens, designed and built in 1905 by her uncle, the artist

Robert Hawthorn Kitson Robert Hawthorn Kitson (3 July 1873 — 17 September 1947) was a British painter. As a gay man, he chose to leave England, where the Labouchere Amendment made life difficult. He settled in Sicily, where he built a villa in Taormina, Casa Cuseni, ...

. She intended to sell it and return to her life in England, but instead she ended up moving to Sicily and running the house by taking paying guests. There she entertained numerous writer and artist friends including

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

, Henry Faulkner, Roald Dahl and

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...

. Towards the end of her life she wrote a memoir of the experience, ''A House in Sicily'' (1999), published by Virago. Following her death, Casa Cuseni is run as a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

, with a few rooms available by the night.

Bibliography

Daphne Phelps (1999) ''A House in Sicily'', London, Virago. .

External links

Obituary in ''The Guardian'', 28 January 2006

*History of Kitson and Phelps Familie

Casa Cuseni
official website

References

1911 births British writers 2005 deaths British expatriates in Italy Taormina {{UK-writer-stub

Life

See also

Bibliography

External links

References