At the end of the war, Peggy had a nervous breakdown. She had given up her place at university to be useful during the war; now she found herself experienced but unqualified for the job she was already doing. She was sent to Switzerland to recover at the Maximilian Bircher-Benner clinic in Zurich, spent a summer in Lugano studying painting, and returned to London to take up the study of art full-time at the Anglo-French Art Centre in St John's Wood, north London. Then she took up painting in a small studio in the apartment of the artist Feliks Topolski and attended life-classes at Hammersmith Art School, under the tutelage of Carel Weight.