Letters sent to Barbara Harriet Taqui Stephens, née Altounyan (1917-2001).
To Barbara Harriet Taqui Stephens, née Altounyan (1917-2001)
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- ReferenceGB 1239 462/1/1/7/10
- Dates of Creation1945
- Language of MaterialEnglish
- Physical Description1 letter
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Administrative / Biographical History
Barbara Harriet Taqui Altounyan was born in Hampstead, north London, in 1917, the eldest daughter of the five children of Dr Ernest Altounyan and Dora Collingwood. In 1919, the Altounyans had moved to Aleppo so that Ernest could work at his father's hospital so most of her childhood was spent in Syria. Arthur Ransome loosely based the character of John Walker in Swallows and Amazons on her. She married Robert Stephens in 1944 and they had three children. She was the author of two celebrated memoirs of Syria, ‘In Aleppo Once’ and ‘Chimes from a Wooden Bell’, and also an artist. She died in 2001.