Lady Winifred Fortescue

All pictures from http://www.perfumefromprovence.com/Sunset.htm

Winifred & 'The Blackness' 1943

Winifred Fortescue (nee Beech) was born in a Suffolk rectory on 7th February 1888, the third child of a country rector and connected, on her mother's side, to the Fighting Battyes of India. When she was seventeen - in order to ease the strain on family finances, and at the suggestion of Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough - she decided to try to earn her own living and went on the stage. Following training at F.R. Benson's Dramatic School she went on to perform in Sir Herbert Tree's company, and later in Jerome K. Jerome's The Passing of the Third Floor Back. Amongst numerous others plays in the West End and on tour she also appeared in Faust, Pinkie and Fairies and Arms and the Man.

In 1914 she married John Fortescue, the King's Librarian and Archivist and famous historian of the British Army. Life was split between London and Windsor Castle, where John's work was, and where he was required whenever the Court was present. The marriage, in spite of a huge disparity of age between them, (some 28yrs),was a uniquely happy one, and although Winifred Fortescue gave up her career on the stage, she later founded CINTRA, a successful interior decorating and court dress designing business. Illness forced her to close her business down but not until after she had held a fashion show at the famous Plaza Hotel in New York. It was at that point that she began writing, for The Times, Punch, the Daily Chronicle, the Evening News, finally inaugurating and editing a Woman's Page for the Morning Post.

Author, Actress, Fashion Designer & Interior Decorator
pictured with her faithful companion 'The Blackness'.

Winifred - 1926

Elisa, Edouard & Lady Fortescue collecting olives c1949

Winifred in the courtyard of Fort Escu in 1936

Perfume from Provence, and the sequel Sunset House. (Perfume from Provence became a bestseller once again when it was re-published by Black Swan in 1992.) Her autobiography, There's Rosemary, There's Rue, was first published in 1939.Trampled Lilies continues her story of Provence during World War Two. Her other books include Mountain Madness, Beauty for Ashes and Laughter in Provence.

The couple renovated an old house and created a home and spectacular garden called 'The Domaine' in the hills near Grasse. Sadly after only 2 years in Provence, Sir John died and there followed a period that was not altogether happy. However, out on her rambles one day Winifred came across a tumbled down stone house perched on a hill and surrounded by olive groves. After a long and somewhat difficult struggle she managed to secure its purchase. Her second best selling book Sunset House, published in 1937, documents this adventure. Under the house in the rock was an old sanctuary used a pigsty, amongst other things. Winifred converted this into a chapel which pleased her neighbours. Her writing continued, they had not been a wealthy couple and the move to Provence had been partially for financial and partially for health reasons and money was needed for work on the new house and its garden. Although known in her writings as 'Sunset House' Winifred decided to call it 'Domaine de Fort Escu'.

In the early 1930's, John and Winifred Fortescue, now Sir John and Lady Fortescue, moved to Provence and there she wrote her famous and best selling

In the early 1930s, Winifred Fortescue and her husband, Sir John Fortescue, left England and settled in Provence, in a small stone house amid olive groves, on the border of Grasse. Their exodus had been caused partly by ill health, but was mostly for financial reasons, as it was in the period between the wars when it was cheaper to live in France than in England. Almost at once they were bewitched, by the scenery, by their garden - an incredible terraced landscape of vines, wild flowers, roses and lavender - and above all by the charming, infuriating, warm-hearted and wily Provencals. The house - called Domaine - was delightful but tiny, and at once plans were put in hand to extend it over the mountain terraces. Winifred Fortescue's witty and warm account of life with stonemasons, builders, craftsman, gardeners, and above all her total involvement with the everyday events of a Provencal village, made Perfume Of Provence an instant bestseller that went into several editions and became a famous and compulsive book for everyone who has ever loved France, most especially Provence.

In the 1930s she moved to Provence with her husband. She died in Opio in April 1951.

Winifred Fortesque was born in a Suffolk rectory on 7th February, 1888, the third child of a country rector and connected, on her mother's side, to the Fighting Battyes of India. She has written for Punch, Daily Chronicle, the Evening News and Morning Post.

Winifred Beech, 7th February 1888, The Rectory, Great Bealings, Suffolk. Daughter of The Rev. Howard Beech M.A., by his wife Henrietta Mildred. She was the fourth daughter of the Rev. William Worcester Godden, M.A., by Emma Whitbread Juliana, née Battye, his wife.
EducatedMainly at home until age about 9 years and then with one of her brothers at the boys school, St. Augustine's, Cliftonville. She attended, at 16 years of age, Old Cedar House School, Slough, which later transferred to London and became Wentworth Hall, Mill Hill. She also attended F.R. Benson's Dramatic School to train for the stage.
Married30th April 1914 in Holy Trinity, Sloane St, Kensington. Sir John William Fortescue K.C.V.O., LL.D Edinburgh, D.Litt. (Oxford), Hon. Fellow Trinity College (Cambridge), Historian of the British Army, Librarian & Archivist, Windsor Castle.
Publications1935 Perfume from Provence1937 Sunset House1939 There's Rosemary, There's Rue1941 Trampled Lilies1943 Mountain Madness1948 Beauty for Ashes1950 Laughter in Provence
Died9th April 1951, Opio, Provence, France. Click here to see death certificate. Probate was granted in London on the 8th August 1951 to her brother The Rev. Canon Guy Beech and Charles Humphrey Woolrych, Solicitor. She left £7587-13-2d, English.Book Search Results
We found 9 titles from author Lady Fortescue.

More titles from our network of out of print book dealers from author Lady Fortescue.

1.
Beauty for Ashes
In-Stock: Ships 2-3 days.
Lady Fortescue / Hardcover / ISIS Large Print Books / February1998
Our Price: $24.95
2.
Perfume from Provence
In-Stock: Ships 2-3 days.
Winifred Fortescue,E. H. Shepard (Illustrator) / Hardcover / Hearst Communications, Incorporated / April1993
Our Price: $16.00
3.
Perfume from Provence
Winifred Fortescue,E.H. Shepard (Illustrator) / Paperback / Transworld Publishers Limited /
This title is not presently stocked by Barnes & Noble. Check availability from our network of Out of Print dealers.
4.
Perfume from Provence
In-Stock: Ships 2-3 days.
Lady Fortescue / Audio / St. Martin's Press, Inc. / June1998
Our Price: $34.95
5.
Return to "Sunset House" : The Continuatio of "Beauty for Ashes"
Lady Fortescue / Hardcover / ISIS Large Print Books / October1998
This title is not presently stocked by Barnes & Noble. Check availability from our network of Out of Print dealers.
6.
Sunset House
Available: Ships 1-2 weeks.
Lady Fortescue,Narrated by Patricia Hughes / Audio / September1998
Our Price: $54.95
7.
Sunset House: More Perfume from Provence
Winifred Fortescue,Lady Fortescue / Hardcover / Transactio / February1996
This title is not presently stocked by Barnes & Noble. Check availability from our network of Out of Print dealers.
8.
Trampled Lilies
Lady Fortescue / Paperback / Transworld Publishers Limited / January2000
This title is not presently stocked by Barnes & Noble. Check availability from our network of Out of Print dealers.
9.
Trampled Lilies
Lady Winifred Fortescue / Hardcover / Thomas T. Beeler Publisher / September1998
This title is not presently stocked by Barnes & Noble. Check availability from our network of Out of Print dealers.

Born

Perfume from Provence : Fortescue, Winifred (Lady).
Blackwood and Sons, 1950.

DISCOVER FRANCE THROUGH BOOKS

Provence
The Horseman on the Roof by Jean Giorno (Harvill). Provence during the cholera epidemic of the 1830's.Jean de Florette by Marcel Pagnol (Picador)Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol (Picador)Fanny by Marcel Pagnol (Picador/Nelson)Marius by Marcel Pagnol (Picador/Nelson)Cesar by Marcel Pagnol (Picador/Nelson)Village in the Vaucluse by Laurence Wylie (Harvard)Dictionnaire des Communes Vaucluse by Robert Bailly (Barthélemy, Avignon)1985Guide de la Provence mysterieuse, by Jean-Paul Clebert (Tchou)1986Old Provence by Theodore A Cook (Rivington, London)1905The Carmargue by Carol Dix (Gollancz, London)1975A Guide to Provence by Michael Jacobs (Viking, London)1988Provence and the Côte D'Azur, (Phaidon, London)1986Memoirs by Frederic Mistral (Arnold, London) 1907Villages de Provence by Alaine Paire and Christian Sarramon (Rivages, Marseille)1984Les Belles Heures du Pays d'Arles (Lafitte, Marseille)1984Aspects of Provence by James Pope-Hennesey (Longman, London)1952Two Towns in Provence by MJK FisherA Year in Provence by Peter MayleNext Time Round in Provence by Ian Norrie (Aurum Press, London)1995Perfume from Provence by Lady Fortescue (Black Swan)Sunset by Lady Fortescue (Black Swan)"I have come across the most delightful books, written by Lady Fortescue in the early 1930s,about her trials and tribulations whilst living in Provence." A.W. ( from e-mail to Le-Guide.Com)

http://www.perfumefromprovence.com/Graves.htm

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw60820/Winifred-ne-Beech-Lady-Fortescue

Winifred (née Beech), Lady Fortescue
by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 20 August 1920
Given by Bassano & Vandyk Studios, 1974
Photographs Collection
NPG x75144

Lady Winifred Fortescue | W (2024)