- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWendy Mary Beckett
- Nicknames
- One-Take Wendy
- Sister Wendy
- Wendy Beckett was born on February 25, 1930 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was a writer, known for Sister Wendy's Story of Painting (1996), Songs of Praise (1961) and Gallery (1984). She died on December 26, 2018 in Quidenham, Norfolk, England, UK.
- Prominent front teeth
- Nun's habit
- She joined a convent at age 16. Her order sent her to Oxford University, where she studied English literature and stayed in a convent. She was awarded a congratulatory first-class degree, a rare honour in which the examining professors at a viva-voce exam ask a candidate no questions about their written work but simply stand and applaud. After gaining her degree, she returned to South Africa to teach. In 1970, with her health poor, the Vatican gave permission for her to pursue a life of solitude and prayer. In the 1980s, she obtained permission to study art, mainly through books and postcards of great works. Then she decided to write a book to earn money for her convent. "Contemporary Women Artists" was followed by more books and articles. In 1991, the BBC commissioned her to present a TV documentary about the National Gallery in London, and she became an unlikely celebrity.
- She was a Carmelite nun who hosted TV programs about art and art history from museums and galleries around the world.
- When she was young, her family moved to Edinburgh, where her father studied medicine.
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