Helena Bonham Carter is mourning the death of her beloved cousin David Pryce-Jones.
The outspoken author and historian, who released a colourful memoir about their ‘bonkers’ aristocratic family, died peacefully at home on Monday aged 89.
He is survived by his wife Clarissa Sabina Caccia, 86, daughter of former British diplomat Baron Caccia, and three of their four children, Adam, Candida and Jessica. Their youngest, Sonia, died aged two in 1972.
The cause of his death has not been disclosed but the family request for any donations, if desired, to be made to Blood Cancer UK.
David was a giant of literary journalism and a key figure in the sprawling Fould-Springer/Propper de Callejon clan that Helena explored with him in the Channel 4 series, My Grandparents’ War.
He released a colourful memoir about their ‘bonkers’ European family, which the actress once admitted ‘was so much part of me I can’t get an objective standpoint.’
Helena Bonham Carter is mourning the death of her beloved cousin David Pryce-Jones (pictured in London last week)
The outspoken author and historian, who released a colourful memoir about their ‘bonkers’ aristocratic family, died peacefully at home on Monday aged 89
The Crown star Helena, 59, has often spoken affectionately about the ‘bonkers’ brood of French, Austrian, Spanish and Jewish relatives who shaped her childhood. David was not just one of them; he was their chief chronicler.
Born in Vienna in 1936 to Times Literary Supplement editor Alan Payan Pryce-Jones and the glamorous heiress Poppy Fould-Springer, David spent much of his youth in the same rarefied but chaotic world later described by the actress as ‘a mad mixture of aunts, uncles and cousins, all wrapped up in one house.’
That house was often the family’s chateau at Royaumont, where generations retreated during the war – a period he would later document in extraordinary detail.
Helena has long credited David’s 2015 memoir Fault Lines with helping her understand the dramatic history behind the ‘melting pot’ that is her maternal heritage.
The book recounts life at Royaumont with Helena’s maternal grandparents, Eduardo Propper de Callejon – the Spanish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews by issuing illegal visas – and his wife Helene, known as Bubbles, an Austrian-Jewish heiress from the Springer industrial dynasty.
‘It would make a great sitcom or drama,’ Helena has said of the family’s wartime adventures. ‘There were so many characters, so dramatic and funny and bonkers. And David captured it all.’
The pair were close enough that the writer often teased his Oscar-nominated cousin. Helena once revealed: ‘My cousin David says, “When you’re angry, I can see Great-Granny Mitzi.”‘
Mitzi Springer – their formidable great-grandmother – was known for her sharp tongue and even sharper instincts. Helena admitted the resemblance.
David was a giant of literary journalism and a key figure in the sprawling Fould-Springer/Propper de Callejon clan that Helena explored with him in a Channel 4 series
Helena was desperate to learn more about her grandfather Eduardo, who never spoke about his heroic actions in the war (pictured, with Helena’s grandmother ‘Bubbles’, mother Elaina and their adopted son David)
Helena has long credited David’s 2015 memoir Fault Lines with helping her understand the dramatic history behind the ‘melting pot’ that is her maternal heritage
Helena’s mother Elaina said her father rarely spoke about his actions in the war, despite saving thousands of people
She went on to meet with Marta, whose father and grandparents were among those who were saved by Eduardo and studied her grandfather’s signature in Marta’s family’s passports
Marta revealed a photograph of her father in New York, revealing that her great-grandfather was Ludwik Witold Rajchman, who went on to be the founder of charity Unicef
The actress frequently pushed back against the idea that her lineage was defined solely by her British great-grandfather, Liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith (pictured)
David’s own career was no less dramatic. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he became one of Britain’s most prolific conservative voices, contributing to various newspapers and magazines.
His 1973 biography Evelyn Waugh and His World caused a furore for exposing family tensions among the famously explosive Mitford sisters. His subsequent book on Unity Mitford reportedly prompted attempts by members of the family to block publication.
In the world of high society and political commentary, he was both admired and feared – a man whose connections stretched from the Rothschilds to the upper reaches of the British establishment.
Yet to Helena, he was part of the ‘neurotic, hilarious, enormous European family’ her mother raised her to cherish.
The actress frequently pushed back against the idea that her lineage was defined solely by her British great-grandfather, Liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith.
‘My mum always said, “For God’s sake, you weren’t made by just one side,”‘ she explained. Pryce-Jones’s stories were at the heart of the other side – the side she felt had shaped her most profoundly.
His death marks the passing of the last of a generation whose real-life dramas – wartime heroism, family feuds, literary scandals – were as vivid as anything in Netflix’s The Crown, in which the actress played Princess Margaret.
And as Helena once joked: ‘I’d have to approach [Crown writer] Peter Morgan. “I’ve got a whole other family story for you. Forget the fifth, and sixth seasons [of The Crown]. You’re coming with me, mate.”‘
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