Daphne Phelps (23 June 191130 November 2005) was a British writer who spent most of her life in
Taormina
Taormina ( , , also , ; ) 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 the Ionian Sea, incl ...
,
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
.
Life
Phelps attended St Felix School,
Southwold, Suffolk, and trained in psychiatric social work at
St Anne's College, Oxford
St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. ...
, and at the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
.
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. 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 philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...
,
Henry Faulkner,
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...
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 three ...
.
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 is preserved as 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 variety of ...
, with a few rooms available by the night.
See also
*
History of Taormina
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 Cuseniofficial website
References
1911 births
British writers
2005 deaths
British expatriates in Italy
Taormina
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