"Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood" by Gwen Raverat, published by Norton & Company, New York, stated "First Published in the United States 1953." First Printing of the Book of the Month Selection Club, identical to the trade edition and printed from the same plates. The only marks of BOMSC are: no price on the front flap and small impressed dot on the backboard. The First British edition was published in 1952.

Dust jacket [a little wear: see photos]; hard boards, original green cloth spine with gilt lettering on it; 6" x 8.1/2"; 282 pages, very good condition.

"Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood" is an autobiographical memoir by the English wood engraver Gwen Raverat covering her childhood in late 19th-century Cambridge society. The book includes anecdotes about and illustrations of many of her extended family Darwin–Wedgwood.

"As the author explains in the preface it is "a circular book" and although it begins with the meeting of her parents (Sir George Darwin and Maud du Puy) and ends with Gwen as a student at The Slade, it is not written chronologically, but rather arranged in a series of fifteen themed chapters, each dealing with a particular aspects of life. The book is illustrated throughout with wood engravings by the author."

"Laugh-out-loud hilarious almost every page. I could hardly put it down. Not just what Gwen Raverat chose to write about in Period Piece, but also the way she wrote. I wish I could find more that she has written. I have recommended it to friends... Although not quite the wordsmith as my favorite author, Diana Athill, she is similar in candor & topics of observation. Forthright & funny!" [from a private review]

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