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Although I very much enjoyed reading this book, I found it not very satisfactory as a biography. Apart from the early part dealing with her childhood, there is not much about her personal life, and rather a lot on her royal photography. In the dedication of the book she writes "I dedicate this book to Jimmy, my husband and partner, without whom Studio Lisa could not have been built, and who so good-naturedly is willing to take a back seat in these memoirs".
I have read elsewhere that Sheridan was a stage surname chosen by Lisa's actress daughter Dinah, and that her parents were really James and Lisa Mec pronounced "Mess". I still do not know for certain what Lisa's maiden name was, although, written inside the front cover of my (second-hand) copy of the book by a previous owner, is "Lisa Sheridan née Budenburg died Jan. 1966" . There is a Lisa C. Sheridan death entry in the GRO for Folkestone - 1966 first quarter - age 72 years. There is also a Lisa Budenberg, age 6 months, born Kennington, in the 1901 census - parents Arnold (mechanical engineer) and Annie - with an older brother Arnold age 2. If anyone reading this has any solid information on these name puzzles I would be grateful for it.
Lisa Sheridan
Lisa describes her father as an author and artist in Forest Hills, London, living what sounds like an unconventional or bohemian lifestyle. He took Lisa on frequent visits abroad. At the age of 10, she was sent to live with her Aunt Lina and Uncle William Hartley in St Petersburg. There is no explanation of why she was sent away from home. She recounts how she made the journey alone by train, and that while waiting for a connection in Berlin went to Berlin Zoo accompanied only by her life-size toy chimpanzee Wallyplug.
She remained in Russia for a number of years taught by a governess. Later she attended school in England returning to Russia for holidays in the summer and at Christmas. When in Russia she once met Tolstoi when visiting Prince Volkonski, a friend of her aunt and uncle. When on the steps of the Hermitage Art Gallery she backed into the Czar's horse on which he was seated before being hurried away. In 1914, she encountered Rasputin who put his face through her carriage door on a train journey from St Petersburg to Archangel where she was due to pick up an American liner bound for England.
She married her husband (Jimmy Mec or Sheridan?) during the Great War in Paris, where she remained while he went to the front. He was injured and had to be nursed back to health. They returned to England and rented a cottage in Hampstead Garden Suburb living on his earnings as a chemist's assistant. There they had two daughters - Jill and Dinah. In contrast to a very perfunctory treatment of these important events in her personal life, there is a detailed description of a visit she made at this time to 145 Piccadilly, the home of the Duke and Duchess of York. Lisa's mother was friends with a Mrs Macdonald who worked there as a servant. Lisa went with her mother on the visit to Mrs MacDonald, and while there was briefly shown the baby Princess Elizabeth.
From Hampstead, the family moved to Broadstairs (no date given). Jimmy was now a bank clerk working in London. Lisa and her husband took up photography more seriously and acquired their first enlarger. They began entering photographs into newspaper competitions and won a number of prizes. The breakthrough came following the publication in an Evening paper (not named) of a nude photograph of their youngest daughter Dinah when aged 11. Lisa was summoned to London by the Art Editor of this paper, and was offered photographic work. Much of their early work consisted of photographing food for women's magazines (hence "cabbages" in the title of the book). One of the magazine editors invented the name Studio Lisa.
Because they were making money from photography, Lisa and Jimmy decided to work at it full time, and Jimmy gave up his job, and there followed a period when he would work at home in the studio and darkroom, while Lisa went up to London to get the orders.
They then made the move to Welwyn Garden City. According to Lisa, a move was necessary because the house in Broadstairs was too small, and because the place was not suitable for their children who were now fourteen and sixteen years of age. Why Welwyn Garden City was chosen is not made clear except to say that London or a conventional suburb would not suit. Lisa describes how she was shown a house in Parkway and immediately decided it would be an ideal place to build a studio.
All the rooms of the house were decorated in such a way that they could be used for photographic shots requiring a domestic setting. The garden was treated similarly. Lisa talks of building a studio, but does not make it clear if she meant constructing a building separate from the house, or was just referring to the house itself. This vagueness on detail is quite annoying. There is a very brief account of the War years spent in WGC.
As well as the picture of the house in Parkway from the current book reproduced below, see also my review of Osborn's New Towns After the War - 1942 - which has a picture of the garden of the house with Jill, Lisa and Dinah seated (I think).
Then (chapter three) Lisa recounts her chance meeting in a railway carriage on the way to London with a slight acquaintance who offers her out of the blue the opportunity to take some photographs of the Princess Elizabeth. Shortly after, a man knocked at their door summoning them to The Royal Lodge, Windsor, the following day. There follows a description of this visit which was in 1936 before the abdication. The Yorks were photographed in the garden with the dogs.
The rest of the book (about two thirds of its bulk) comprises descriptions of visits to various royal residences and the photographic sessions which took place there. Perhaps that is what Lisa thought her readers would be most interested in; or perhaps she just wanted to preserve her own family's privacy by her perfunctory treatment of her own personal life.
The last few pages contain accounts of her meetings with other notables to take their photographs - George Bernard Shaw, John Masefield, A. A. Milne, George Lansbury, C. Day Lewis, Flora Robson, Julian Huxley, and so on.
The book is illustrated with 82 black and white photographs, all by Lisa or her husband, almost half being portraits of members of the royal family.
Lisa's daughter, Dinah Sheridan, married the actor Jimmy Hanley (1918-1970), whom I remember presenting advertising magazine programmes on television in the very early years of ITV. Dinah and Jimmy's son, Jeremy Hanley (b. 1945), was MP for Richmond, and was chairman of the Conservative Party 1994-5. Jeremy's sister, Jenny Hanley (b. 1947), presented the children's television program Magpie.
(click on the images for a better view)
Picture of Dinah Sheridan entitled "Dawn".
14 Parkway, Welwyn Garden City.
Interior of the studio.
Studio Lisa advertisement not from the autobiography but from the 1953/54 WGC
Handbook.
(click on the images for a better view)