Читать книгу The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts: A feel-good funny romance - Annie Darling - Страница 5

From the London Gazette

OBITUARY

Lavinia Thorndyke OBE, April 1, 1930 to February 14, 2015

Bookseller, mentor and tireless champion of literature, Lavinia Thorndyke has died aged 84.

Lavinia Rosamund Melisande Thorndyke was born on 1 April 1930, the youngest child and only daughter of Sebastian Marjoribanks, the third Lord Drysdale and his wife Agatha, daughter of Viscount and Viscountess Cavanagh.

Lavinia’s eldest brother, Percy, was killed fighting for the Loyalists in Spain in 1937. Twins, Edgar and Tom, both served with the RAF and died within a week of each other during the Battle of Britain. Lord Drysdale died in 1947 and his title and family estate in North Yorkshire passed to a cousin.

Lavinia and her mother made a home for themselves in Bloomsbury, just around the corner from Bookends, the shop gifted to Agatha on her twenty-first birthday in 1912 by her parents in the hope that it would prove a distraction from her work with the Suffragette movement.

In a column she wrote for The Bookseller in 1963, Lavinia recalled: ‘My mother and I found solace among the shelves. To compensate for our lack of a family, we were happy to be adopted by the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice, the Mortmains in I Capture the Castle, the Marches in Little Women, the Pockets in Great Expectations. We found what we were searching for in the pages of our favourite books.’

Lavinia was educated at Camden School for Girls, then took up a degree in Philosophy at Oxford University where she met Peregrine Thorndyke, third and youngest son of the Duke and Duchess of Maltby.

They were married at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden on 17 May 1952 and started wedded life in the flat above Bookends. On the death of Lavinia’s mother Agatha in 1963, the Thorndykes moved into her house in Bloomsbury Square and many a young writer was mentored, nurtured and nourished around their kitchen table.

Lavinia was awarded an OBE in 1982 for her services to bookselling.

Peregrine died in 2010 after a short battle with cancer.

Lavinia remained a familiar sight in Bloomsbury cycling from her home to Bookends. A week ago, after a recent collision with another cyclist resulting in nothing more than scrapes and bruises, Lavinia died suddenly at her home.

She is survived by her only daughter, Mariana, Contessa di Reggio d’Este, and her grandson, Sebastian Castillo Thorndyke, a digital entrepreneur.