ABSTRACT
Joan was sent to Wycombe Abbey school from the age of fourteen to seventeen. It was the cutting edge of girls’ education at the time. This chapter describes a visit by the author to the school. It describes the changes in the educational climate which led to the development of public schools for girls, and also follows the activities of the headmistress Miss Dove as she skilfully built up the school. A school photograph of Joan indicates she was not happy, and her parents removed her abruptly in the middle of a year. The chapter speculates on the reasons for this. Joan’s parents sent her off immediately to Gotha for a year, where she learned fluent German and developed a crush on an older man.
