Ann Fonsweer

Illness has meant that this blog has not been updated as much as it should have been. But the illness will resolve itself in wellness soon, I hope. PS: Saw Fonsweer mentioned here . 

  This scrap of paper shows an incomplete sentence by an unknown writer. Her "crimes", her rough justice, her education of young men,...       The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .

 The artist Ann Fonsweer, according to her diary, would often go for walks in the countryside around Apple Limeway. These photos maybe show what she would have seen on those walks. An unusal dip in a road, Cambridgeshire 1930 The generally flat Cambridge countryside A river near Apple Limeway An abandoned house in Apple Limeway, Cambridgeshire 1936 A bare tree, Cambridgeshire Abandoned farm building, 1934, Apple Limeway, Cambridgeshire Horse in field, 1937, Cambridgshire Though Ann's summer diary has a twee title, the contents are less so.   The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .

 A gentleman in Bedfordshire was listening to Cambridge105 Radio ,   and heard a mention of a reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist . He had lived in Apple Limeway briefly (where the events in the diary take place) so he investigated further and found an image on the title page of the book . Summer Diary of a Lady Artist frontispiece. Something struck him about the "logo", presumably of the publishing company: Two Sisters Publishing . Two Sisters Publishing logo It reminded him of something, something his grandfather had, an old black and white photo. He contacted me by email (at ckfonsweer@gmail.com ), with the scanned photo attached: Ann Fonsweer's cabinet?   The photo is old and the photographer was inexpert but it is clear what reminded him of the logo of Two Sisters Publishing. The gentleman thinks the photograph was taken in the 1950s or 1960s. It seems to be a (wooden?) cabinet, but what is inside is impossible to guess. And why his grandfather took a photo ...

 Here are some very old postcards of Apple Limeway, the setting of most events in The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist by Ann Fonsweer. Presumably Ann knew these places well, and though she was an artist her drawings refer to her surroundings only tangentially.     The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .

 This photo seems to show the location of the Ann Fonsweer Archive. (Ann Fonsweer wrote what was to become The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist , an account of revenge and cougar love.) The "archive" was actually a drawer in a lawyer's office in Edinburgh. Ann Fonsweer Archive, 195? It is thought that the office was in the rooms above the shops, the ones with the arched windows. It was in this archive that new drawings, unseen for decades were discovered. There was also the strange discovery of a cut-out hand a little smaller than an inch in size:   It could be that Fonsweer used templates for some of her drawings, because there are quite a few figures with hands very similar to the one shown above. Presumably the actual template (the hand shaped hole) has been lost, but she, or someone for her, kept what had been cut out. For example on page 19:   The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .   Fonsweer's "Crimes" Doycroft...

 In the Summer Diary of a Lady Artist there is an entry for the 25th August 1935: "There is a river just over a mile away. Sometimes, very very early in the morning, I bathe in that river."    The drawing on the opposite page is incongruous. And there is something wrong with the arms. Maybe a drawing mistake impossible to correct on an ink sketch?  The photo was taken in the 1920s but the fashion in bathing costumes changed slowly one hundred years ago. Presumably the river mentioned on the first page of the diary is the same as the one she "bathes" in. The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .

  In Ann's Diary it is called Doycroft Hospita l (by Ann) and Doycroft Daft House (by Mrs. Busyness). Its official name was Doycroft Asylum. It was located just outside of Norwich. Doycroft Asylum, 1937 The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .   (An aside: At the same time as Ann's Summer Diary (1935) there was a terrible case of an eleven year old child, Mary Marston. She murdered all her family in their beds with dress making scissors, then burnt the house down. Mary was not considered of sane mind, and was not convicted of murder. She was sent to Doycroft Asylum, and ended her days there.)

 This photo was probably taken in the 1930s. The Post Office is first mentioned in Ann's diary on Friday the 5th of July 1935: Today I went again to the post office, there is still no cheque for me. The Post Mistress, Mrs. Busyness I call her, plump and active, looked at me with concern. She knows I am waiting for money. She cashes my cheques. Mr. Busyness died a few years ago and has never been replaced, neither in her affections nor as a postman. There are so few people in Apple Limeway who receive letters.   Long ago, before my fall, I overheard someone say that I was not the usual sort of woman. I took it as a compliment.   The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .

 Some young UK readers and non UK readers have been puzzled by these symbols on the first page: They are pronounced LSD but stand for Pounds Shillings and Pence. Like English spelling the language was corrupted by Latin scholars, and £sd actually stands for Librae, Solidi, and Denarii.  When Ann was around this monetary system was used with 20 shillings in the pound, 12 pence in a shilling. When she mentions the money owing to her from her brother she uses the £sd symbols. And here is what she would have handled:            LSD the hallucinogenic drug was discovered in 1938 by Hofman, 3 years after the events in the diary, so though the drawings of Fonsweer seem to suggest hallucination, artificial stimulants were not used it seems...         A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com , ISBN 978-1-4466-7410-9. Contact: ckfonsweer@gmail.com

Another way of looking at The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist ... ...is an illustrated account of revenge, violent protection of the innocent and cougar love. Available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com .

 Ann Fonsweer, the artist who became posthumously famous after the publication of her illustrated diary, had a strange signature. Most of the examples we have come from the diary itself, the images which follow are scanned from the reprinted edition of that diary. She seems to have adopted the "name" or "identity" of Alpha Eff. (The Greek letter "α" and an English language letter "f". Clearly referring to Ann Fonsweer.    These examples of her signature show that they are easily copy-able, so if someone offers you a "genuine Fonsweer" ask for provenance and don't rely on the signature!  A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com , ISBN 978-1-4466-7410-9. Contact: ckfonsweer@gmail.com      

 A friend recently said that she'd seen a condescending reference to Ann Fonsweer in the book Marshal Edwards Patron of the Arts by H Christopher. I asked for more detail, and she had meant to take some notes and then had forgot, she was in a rush to catch a train! They were both living in Cambridge in 1935, but he was at the University, Trinity College, and she was living in Apple Limeway. A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com , ISBN 978-1-4466-7410-9. Contact: ckfonsweer@gmail.com

 Ann Fonsweer gave every diary page a title. We don't know if this title was added before she wrote the entry or after. For example on the 11th of August 1935 she used the title "Closing Time" Here are all the dates and titles of that Summer diary, for the academics among you: Wednesday 3rd July 1935   Where is my money? Thursday 4th July 1935   Cambridge, Long Lost Love as a Ghost. Friday 5th July 1935   Teaching Latin? Saturday 6th July 1935   Boy fishing. Sunday 7th July 1935   Thief Monday 8th July 1935   Anglia Tuesday 9th July 1935   My Cheque Appears, My Key Disappears Wednesday 10th July 1935   The First Lesson Thursday 11th July 1935   Gardening. Friday 12th July 1935   Things unfold, perceptions change. Saturday 13th July 1935   Smoother, Deeper Sunday 14th July 1935   “Corrupter.” Monday 15th July 1935   Keep Your Powder Dry. Tuesday 16th July...

 This photo shows the interior of the St. John's church, Apple Limeway. St. John's Church Apple Limeway, Cambridgeshire, 1930 circa Here is a postcard which shows the exterior of the church:  Ann mentions the church in her diary: Sunday 14th July 1935 I went to church this morning. I walked there with the Sisters and smiled at everybody. I looked at the stained glass as I always do, ignored the sermon and just thought. It is hard to tell what the Sisters believe. There is a slight air of superiority when they sit on their pew. But they live together in a cottage as small as mine. It has occurred to me that there is only one bedroom. They must sleep in the same room. So what are they superior about?   I contrived to walk back with them. I asked them how they ended up in this village in that cottage. They told me a vague story about a father and a small legacy and Linda’s love of gardening. A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist ( An illustrated novel of cougar lov...

 Here is the frontispiece of the original edition of "The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist" by Ann Fonsweer. "This is an illustrated diary of revenge, violent protection of the innocent, and cougar love. In the interwar years, in Cambridgeshire, Ann Fonsweer has stolen an education by piggybacking on the private schooling of her brother. When the diary starts, brother and sister are estranged, and Ann survives on what money he sends her. The diary reveals these financial money worries as well as the anger she feels towards her previous lovers. She is attracted to a youth in her village, who reveals to her a future crime. She decides to prevent the crime. Every page of the diary is accompanied by an odd pen and ink drawing, secretive hard to interpret."   A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist ( An illustrated account of cougar love and the protection of the innocent ) is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com , ISBN 978-1-4466-7410-9. Contact: ckf...

 Ann Fonsweer travelled between Apple Limeway to Cambridge using the train. Here is a photo of Apple Limeway Station, probably in the 1930s when she was still living in the village. See this post for the location of Apple Limeway.   A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com , ISBN 978-1-4466-7410-9. Contact: ckfonsweer@gmail.com

 Not only is this a rare edition of Ann Fonsweer's Summer Diary Of A Lady Artist, but it is the only survivor of a limited (and neccessarily private) print run. The book was discovered in the Two Sisters Publishing archive .   Douglas Ainslee must have got hold of a copy because he said of the book: " This is a dark and mysterious text disguised as a diary, and there a sort of infinity in the spaces between the words. "   A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com , ISBN 978-1-4466-7410-9. Contact: ckfonsweer@gmail.com

 The "archive" is actually a large drawer in an old house in in Edinburgh. Ann Fonsweer, who we know lived in Apple Limeway near Cambridge one eventful summer, was skilled in strange ink pen drawings, and here are two of the newly discovered ones (both untitled but both dated 1935). Her style is unmistakable both in subject matter and execution. One copy of the published book was also found in this archive.   A reprint of The Summer Diary of a Lady Artist is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com , ISBN 978-1-4466-7410-9