Iris Origo

by Caroline Moorehead

"Iris Origo was one of those rare characters who, despite being born with a platinum spoon in her mouth, went on to accomplish great things. In Origo's case, she managed to add light and colour to everything she touched, leaving for posterity a body of work - biography, autobiography and literary criticism - that has become recognized as a model of its kind.". "She was born a Cutting, a wealthy and long-established Long Island family, but her talented and beloved father (who resembled, more than a little, a character right out of Henry James) died of consumption when she was only seven. She spent the following years travelling the world with her self-centered and eccentric mother and an extensive entourage, settling finally at the Villa Medici at Fiesole. There she was introduced to the privileged world of wealthy Anglo-Florentine expatriates, a volatile community that included the Berensons, Harold Acton, Janet Ross and Edith Wharton, and whose petty bickering, and pettier politics, h