Boyd, Pattie

PATTIEBOYD

Patricia Anne "Pattie" Boyd (born 17 March 1944) is an English model, photographer and author. She was the first wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton. In August 2007, she published her autobiography Wonderful Tonight. Her photographs of Harrison and Clapton, titled Through the Eye of a Muse have been exhibited in Dublin, Sydney, Toronto, Moscow, London and throughout the United States. With the death of Cynthia Lennon on 1 April 2015, Boyd is now the sole surviving first Beatle wife.

Boyd was born on 17 March 1944, in Taunton, Somerset, and was the first child to Colin Ian Langdon Boyd, and Diana Frances Boyd (née Drysdale), who were married on 14 September 1942. The Boyds moved to West Lothian, Scotland where her brother Colin was born in 1946.The Boyd family moved to Guildford, Surrey, where her sister, Jenny Boyd was born in 1947. Boyd's youngest sister, Paula, was born at Nakuru hospital, Kenya, in 1951. The Boyds lived in Nairobi, Kenya, from 1948 to 1953, after her father's discharge from the Royal Air Force.Boyd's parents divorced in 1952, and her mother married Robert Gaymer-Jones in February 1953, in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The family returned to England where Boyd gained two half brothers, David J.B. (b. 1954) and Robert, Jr. (b. 1955).

Boyd attended Hazeldean School in Putney, the St Agnes and St Michael Convent Boarding School in East Grinstead, and St Martha's Convent in Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire (where she received three GCE O level passes in 1961).Boyd moved to London in 1962 and worked as a shampoo girl at Elizabeth Arden's salon, until a client who worked for a fashion magazine inspired her to begin work as a model.

Boyd began her fashion career in 1962, modelling in London, New York and Paris. She was photographed by David Bailey and Terence Donovan, and appeared on the cover of Vogue. Boyd appeared on the cover of the UK and Italian editions of Vogue magazine in 1969, with other popular models of the day, such as Twiggy, who based her early modeling appearance on Boyd. Boyd was asked by Gloria Stavers to write a column for 16 Magazine, and appeared in a TV commercial promoting Smith's crisps. She was cast for A Hard Day's Night, where she met George Harrison.

Boyd exhibited her photos of Harrison and Clapton, at the San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentine's Day 2005, in a show entitled Through the Eye of a Muse. The exhibition appeared in San Francisco and London during 2006, and in La Jolla, California in 2008. Boyd's photography was shown in Dublin and in Toronto in 2008 and at the Blender Gallery in Sydney, Australia and in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2009 and 2010. Her exhibit "Yesterday and Today: The Beatles and Eric Clapton" was shown in Santa Catalina Island in California, and at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC in 2011.

In 2007 Boyd published her autobiography, which includes some of her photographs, titled Wonderful Today in the UK; in the US it was published with the titleWonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me. In the United States, Boyd's book debuted at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.