Leaves of the Tulip Tree

by Juliette Huxley

Dust jacket "The first-class waiting room at Oxford railway station may have been the scene of many odd encounters, but none that changed the course of someone's life as much as Juliette Huxley's. It was there that she met Lady Ottoline Morrell during the First World War to be interviewed for the position of governess to the family, leading to her introduction to the exotic and stimulating world of Garsington....At Garsington she met all the Bloomsbury characters - Bertrand Russell, Lytton Strachey, the painter Mark Gertler and, most importantly to her life, the Huxley brothers Aldous, and Julian whom she later married. Julian was a zoologist, botanist, writer and teacher and his career reflected the diversity of his interests. Juliette discovered that she had married a restless, troubled spirit. Early years at Oxford and in London led on to Julian's controversial spell at the London Zoo, followed by his appointment as the first Director-General of UNESCO, interspersed with several extended foreign assignments. Juliette Husley recalls the excitements and occasional chaotic moments of these years with affectionate humour, including the holiday at Les Diablerets with Julian, D. H. Lawrence, Frieda, Aldous and Maria who was was typing Lady Chatterley's Lover and the lively and exhausting years of collaboration with H. G. Wells on The Science of Life. She is no less reticent in dealing with the darker side of their lives. Marriage to a Huxley was never easy and there were times when it seemed hers would not survive. In the event a latent capacity to develop her own independence together with a determination to come to terms with her husband's temperament enabled her to overcome the crisis. This is a central and moving theme in a book which is also memorable for perceptive portraits of Lady Ottoline Morrell, D. H. Lawrence, Kotelianski, H. G. Wells and Aldous Huxley and many other close friends."

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Wife of Julian Huxley

In 1919 Julian Huxley married Juliette Baillot (1896–1994). She was a French Swiss girl whom he had met at Garsington Manor, the country house of Lady Ottoline Morrell, a Bloomsbury Group socialite with a penchant for artists and intellectuals.