Lindsay Cressida

Cressida Lindsay

 

Cressida Lindsay was born in 1930. Her uncle, Jack Lindsay, (see separate entry) was also a writer and a Communist.

 

She became fully immersed in the post-second world war avant garde intellectual scene, joining the Communist Party, mingling with poets such as Dylan Thomas and John Rety, later the Morning Star’s poetry editor, and partying with Allen Ginsberg. Alan Sillitoe gave Cressida her first typewriter and she also knew Doris Lessing well.

 

She wrote two novels – `No, John, No’ (1966) and `Lovers and Fathers’ (1969). Her autobiographical `Father's Gone to War’ and `Mother's Gone to Pieces’ (1963) says much!

 

In the mid-60s, Cressida moved from Notting Hill to Norfolk, founding a commune for artists, which she and her husband, Peter, only left in the 1980s when they settled in Norwich. For years, she battled with alcohol addiction and now played a vigorous role in Alcoholics Anonymous.

 

Cressida Lindsay died aged 80.

 

Source: The Guardian 25th November 2010