She had a difficult childhood: her father had an affair and her mother left him, requiring Vivien at the age of fifteen to write him a letter ending their relationship.
"I needed a hobby, the wartime evenings in the black-out were long and dark, so I started to furnish the house, to make carpets and curtains for it.
After Graham had abandoned his family, she travelled the world to add to her collection, becoming a noted authority in the field of antique dolls' houses between 1700 and 1900 and their social history and craftsmanship.
The earliest item in her collection was a William-and-Mary house built in oak in about 1690 in the shape of a cabinet, suitable to be displayed in a drawing room.
[10] Dolls' houses were initially created as a status symbol, built as a replica of the owner's home or as an ornament on a staircase landing.
[4][11] In 1962 she even made the journey through Checkpoint Charlie to Communist East Germany to research the original plans of 19th century makers of miniature furniture based at Schloss Tenneberg [de], near Waltershausen, Thuringia.
[11] In 1962 she built the Rotunda as a doll's house museum in the grounds of her home near Oxford, incorporating the spiral staircase from the St James's Theatre.