She was born in Florence as Gioconda Beatrice Salvadori Paleotti to parents from the Marche of English origins.

Her father, count Guglielmo "Willie" Salvadori Paleotti, was a positivist philosopher, Anglophile and aristocrat.

Joyce was educated according to the principles of Rudolf Steiner in Germany, France and Portugal before taking degrees in literature at the Sorbonne and in philology at Lisbon.

Her travels in Africa during the years 1933–1938 gave birth to environmentalist commitments; politically she was of the left and she became a member of the anti-fascist organization Giustizia e Libertà.

Sherlock Holmes, anarchici e siluri, a piece of Holmesian apocrypha, which she published in 1986, should also be mentioned.