Angela Thirkell, granddaughter of pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, was born in London in 1890. Related to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, cousin to Rudyard Kipling, mother of Colin Maclnnes and Graham Mclnnes, Thirkell was one of the most famous comic novelists of her day. She died in 1961 just before her seventy-first birthday.