Francis Wyndham

Francis Guy Percy Wyndham FRSL (2 July 1924 – 28 December 2017) was an English journalist, novelist, editor, and literary scout. For nearly two decades, he served as a senior editor for The Sunday Times Magazine, where he became a prominent cultural figure by pioneering an "image-first" layout philosophy and introducing popular culture into mainstream broadsheet journalism.

Though his own literary output was sparse, spanning only five published volumes, his pervasive, behind-the-scenes influence shaped 20th-century English literature. He was widely celebrated for discovering V. S. Naipaul, managing the historic literary rediscovery of Jean Rhys, and launching the literary career of Bruce Chatwin. His 1988 novella, The Other Garden, won the prestigious Whitbread First Novel Award when he was 63 years old. In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).

Early life A birth member of the Wyndham family, Francis Guy Percy Wyndham was born on 2 July 1924 in St George Hanover Square, London, England. His father, Colonel Guy Percy Wyndham, was a retired military officer and diplomat who had notably fought at the Relief of Ladysmith during the Second Boer War. His father's first wife had died during the post-First World War influenza epidemic, leaving three half-siblings, one of whom, Second Lieutenant George Heremon Wyndham, was killed in action during the First World War. His half-siblings were the painter Richard Wyndham and the photographer Olivia Wyndham. When Wyndham was sixteen years old, his father died. While Wyndham associated his father with a stifling sense of social propriety, he received early literary encouragement from his mother, Violet Lutetia Henrietta (née Leverson), a biographer who was considerably younger than his father.

Through his mother, Wyndham was the grandson of the Jewish Edwardian novelist Ada Leverson, a prominent member of Max Beerbohm's circle and a loyal friend to Oscar Wilde, who famously dubbed her The Sphinx. Wyndham's maternal granduncle was the novelist and translator Sydney Schiff, who hosted a Parisian dinner party in 1922 where James Joyce and Marcel Proust met for the only time in their lives. Schiff also translated Time Regained, the final volume of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. From this history, Wyndham became a lifelong francophile. His first formal portrait for the gallery was taken in May 1985 by portrait and editorial photographer Chris Garnham, who captured Wyndham seated on a staircase. The resulting 13 7/8 in. x 14 in. bromide fibre print was posthumously donated to the museum by Garnham's estate in 1991, coinciding with the gallery's commemorative exhibition Chris Garnham: Photographer 1958–1989. A second photographic portrait, captured by photographer Richard Saker on 10 August 2008, featured Wyndham seated in an armchair inside his North London home. The chromogenic print was taken during an interview session tracking Wyndham's six decade literary career and his relationships with other prominent cultural figures. The portrait was officially incorporated into the National Portrait Gallery's collection as a direct gift from Saker in 2010.

Wyndham died from kidney failure on 28 December 2017 in Westminster, Greater London, England. He was 93. At the time of his death, his close friends James Fox, Edward St Aubyn, and Jean Longman were present at his bedside. He was predeceased by his younger brother, Hugh Guy Osbert "Hughie" Wyndham, and three older half-siblings. He was survived by his niece, Rachel. Wyndham was honoured with extensive obituaries across the British broadsheet press, including The Telegraph, The Times, and The Guardian, all of which celebrated his pervasive influence on 20th-century English literature and his transformative, "image-first" leadership at The Sunday Times Magazine. Following a private funeral service, he was cremated at New Southgate Cemetery on 16 January 2018.

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