Joan Evans was born at Nash Mills, Apsley, Hertfordshire, the daughter of antiquarian and businessman Sir John Evans and his third wife, Maria Millington Lathbury. She was half-sister to Sir Arthur Evans, excavator of Knossos and discoverer of Minoan civilisation. Sir Arthur was forty two years her senior: he caused huge hilarity at an antiquarian conference of learned and erudite gentlemen when he brought in a four-year-old Joan to be "shown off". Evans was educated privately before going up to St Hugh's College, Oxford to read Archaeology. She graduated in 1916 as M.A.. In 1930 she was awarded a D.Litt..
St Joan of Orleans: scenes from the 15th century "Mystére de Siége d’Orleans", by Peter Studer, selected and translated by Joan Evans, Clarendon Press, 1926
The Unconquered Knight: a chronicle of the deeds of Don Pero Nino, Count of Buelna, by his standard bearer, Diaz de Gamez, Translated and selected from El Vitorial by Joan Evans, Routledge, 1928
Pattern, a Study of Ornament in Western Europe from 1180 to 1900, 2 vols, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931
Monastic Life at Cluny, 1931; Archon Books, USA, 1968
English Posies and Posy Rings: catalogue with introduction by Joan Evans, Oxford University Press, 1931
English Mediaeval Lapidaries, 1933, by Joan Evans and Mary S. Serjeantson
Nature in Design A Study of Naturalism in Decorative Art, from the Bronze Age to the Renaissance, London, Oxford University Press, 1933
The Palace of Minos: Index of artefacts, vol. 5, compiled by Joan Evans in collaboration with Sir Arthur Evans, Cambridge University Press, 1936
The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny, Cambridge University Press, 1938
Joinville’s History of Saint Louis, edited by Joan Evans, Gregynog Press, 1937; Oxford University Press, 1938
Taste and Temperament. A Brief Study of Psychological Types in their relation to the Visual Arts. Jonathan Cape. 1939.
Chateaubriand: a Biography, Macmillan, 1939
Time and Chance: The Story of Arthur Evans and his Forebears, 1943
John Ruskin: Diaries, 3 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956
The Lamp of Beauty: Writings on Art by John Ruskin, selected and edited by Joan Evans, Phaidon, Oxford, 1959
Madame Royale, Museum Press, 1959
Prelude & Fugue: An Autobiography, London, Museum Press, 1964
Monastic Architecture in France from the Renaissance to the Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1964
The Conways: a History of Three Generations, London, Museum Press, 1966
The Victorians, Cambridge University Press, 1966
The Flowering of the Middle Ages, edited by Joan Evans, Thames & Hudson, London, 1966; also in German as Blüte des Mittelalters; and in Spanish, trans. Mireia Bofill, 1988
Monastic Iconography in France from the Renaissance to the Revolution'', Cambridge University Press, 1970
