Kinta beevor iris origo biography

British writer (1902–1988)

Dame Iris Margaret Origo, Marchesa Origo, DBE (née Cutting; 15 August 1902 – 28 June 1988) was an English-born biographer and writer.

She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to improving the Tuscan estate at La Foce, near Montepulciano, which she bought with her husband in the 1920s.

During the Second World War, she persistently sheltered refugee children and helped many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans, in defiance of Italy's fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces.

Origins and upbringing

Origo was born as Iris Margaret Cutting at Beechwood Cottage, Birdlip, Gloucestershire, England,^[1] to the American diplomatWilliam Bayard Cutting Jr. and Lady Sybil Marjorie Cuffe (daughter of Lord Desart, an Irish peer).

The Cutting family was a known, wealthy and philanthropicNew York family – Origo was a granddaughter of William Bayard Cutting and a niece of New Mexico progressive Senator Bronson