Icon of the art world
She came late to the study of art history, but, in her dual roles as author and television presenter, she has more than compensated since. She claims not to know how many books she has written, and, given that her primary vocation is a religious one, it seems best she be believed; the tally is more than 20, but she says “only three of these were big books.”
Beckett is not just a nun; she is also a hermit and would live a life of isolation were it not for her interest in art. Born in South Africa, and raised in Edinburgh, Beckett joined the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1946, and studied English at Oxford. She trained as a teacher and returned to South Africa, to lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1970, she suffered health problems and abandoned teaching. She was granted a papal dispensation to become a consecrated virgin, and went to live in a monastery in Norfolk, under the care of the Carmelite nuns.
