Leaves from a Life

Jane Ellen Panton (1847-1923) was the second daughter of the artist William Powell Frith, and a journalist and author on domestic issues. She grew up in London, where she developed an aesthetic and practical interest in the various homes she lived in, and went on to publish a series of advice guides on buying property, decorating, and running households. Given her family’s background and diverse interests, art, literature and theatre were also prominent in her life, as well as law and religion. First published in 1908, this is Panton’s revealing autobiography, in which she recalls the places she lived, as well as the painters, actors, writers, and religious and legal figures who were central to her family’s circle, influencing her tastes and interests. Offering a portrait of a creative milieu in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book is both historically valuable and highly readable.