Introduction

Biography

Joyce was the daugh­ter of Har­ry (Hen­ry) Tor­rens An­stru­ther, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, and his wife (lat­er Dame) Eva An­stru­ther (née Han­bu­ry-Tra­cy). She mar­ried twice: to An­tho­ny Max­tone Gra­ham, and Adolf Kurt Pla­czek.

She spent her child­hood in Whit­church, and was edu­cat­ed pri­vate­ly in Lon­don.

In class, she used to sit be­hind Eli­za­beth Bowes-Lyon (the fu­ture Queen Eli­za­beth, the Queen Mo­ther) and would oc­ca­sion­al­ly dip the long tress­es of roy­al hair in­to the ink-well.

Years lat­er, when asked about this by an An­struth­er fa­mi­ly mem­ber, the ev­er-tact­ful Queen Mo­ther de­clared she could re­call no­thing of it!

Struther con­trib­ut­ed twelve hymns to Songs of Praise (Lon­don: 1931).

Works

• Betsinda Dan­ces and Oth­er Po­ems, 1931
• Sycamore Square and Oth­er Vers­es, 1932
• The Mo­dern Struw­wel­pe­ter, 1936
• Try Any­thing Once, 1938
• Mrs. Mi­ni­ver, 1939
• The Glass-Blow­er and Oth­er Po­ems, 1940
• A Poc­ket­ful of Peb­bles, 1946