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Jan Struther
Jan Struther, author of Mrs Miniver (1939)
Jan Struther, the pseudonym of Joyce Anstruther (1901-53), was brought up in London and educated privately. At a young age she started writing articles for Punch, the Spectator etc, marrying Tony Maxtone Graham, a stockbroker, in 1923; they lived in Chelsea, and Camber Sands near Rye, and had three children. Although an agnostic, she wrote hymns (eg. 'When a knight won his spurs in the stories of old') for a new edition of Songs of Praise, as well as several volumes of poetry. In 1937 she started writing columns for The Times, collected as the book Mrs Miniver in October 1939. A volume of her essays appeared as Try Anything Twice in 1938. From 1940 onwards Jan Struther lived in America, where Mrs Miniver was hugely popular; together with the 1942 film it allegedly influenced the US decision to enter the war. She married the architectural historian Dolf Placzek in 1948 in New York.
List of resources about Jan Struther
- The Real Mrs Miniver by Ysenda Maxtone Graham (2001)
