British Author Challenge March 2023: Vita Sackville-West & Tariq Ali

The only child of Victoria Sackville-West and Lionel Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville, Victoria Mary "Vita" Sackville-West was born in 1892 at Knole, her family's home in Kent. She was primarily educated by tutors, and wrote prolifically during her youth at Knole.

Sackville-West married Harold Nicolson in 1913; the couple had an open marriage, and they both had several same-sex lovers. Virginia Woolf was one of Vita's lovers and took her as the inspiration for Orlando.

A popular novelist in her day, Sackville-West also wrote poetry, biographies, travelogues, and books on gardens. She died in 1962.

Selected works
The Edwardians
All Passion Spent
The Land and the Garden
Challenge
A Note of Explanation
Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson
Pepita
Passenger to Teheran
Sissinghurst: Vita Sackville-West and the Creation of a Garden
The Dragon in Shallow Waters

Tariq Ali was born in 1943 in Lahore, Punjab, British India, now part of Pakistan. Ali became politically active as a teen; his parents decided he would be safer out of Pakistan and sent him to England, where he studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Exeter College, Oxford.

Ali is staunchly left-wing in his politics, and has long been a critic of US foreign policy. He has written extensively on politics and history, as well as writing novels and screenplays.

Selected works
Islam Quintet
The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity
Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq
Street-Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties
Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope
Trotsky for Beginners
The Nehrus and the Gandhis: An Indian Dynasty
The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad
Who's Afraid of Margaret Thatcher?: In Praise of Socialism

>2 amanda4242: The Obama Syndrome delivers an eye-opening contrast to President Obama's A Promised Land.

An updated version from Tariq Ali would be welcome.

A bit of a contrast in writers this month!

>4 elkiedee: I do try to match writers who are different from each other for variety, but this month is pretty extreme!

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West

All Passion Spent is a novel of, well, spent passion. Lady Slane has spent her life in service to others: supporting her husband, caring for her children, and being a patron of various charitable institutions have filled her days, but consumed her soul.

As I was reading this I couldn't help but think how sad it is that Sackville-West is generally only spoken of as a footnote to Virginia Woolf, if she's even spoken of at all. All Passion Spent is a contemplative work that deserves to be far better known.

>6 amanda4242: I will be reading All Passion Spent this month. I look forward to it.

I also own:

Two stories/short novellas:


and this nonfiction:


I may or may not get to these.

>7 kac522: I look forward to your thoughts on it. It's a very quite novel, but it says some pretty big things.

Trotsky for Beginners by Tariq Ali, illustrated by Phil Evans

Exactly what it says on the tin. Ali does a decent job of giving the basics of Trotsky's life and ideology, but I have my doubts as to how balanced his portrait is. Evans's cheeky illustrations are what really make the book.

I read All Passion Spent. I love how Sackville-West's writing flows, and her insight into human nature revealed through the characters. Part two may be the heart of the book, yet it's also the weakest part of the book for me. Too much telling and not enough showing.

I finished all 3 of the Sackville-West books that I own.


All Passion Spent (1931) tells the story of Lady Slane who is recently widowed at age 88. Against the advice of her elderly children, she leaves her fashionable city home and moves into a small row house to live alone with her maid. She reflects on the life she has lived for her husband, which meant she could not pursue her dream of being a painter, and how her life as a woman was proscribed for her from every angle. For its time this novel must have been extraordinary. I found it a compelling read, even these 90 years later.


Seducers in Ecuador & The Heir are two stories from 1924 & 1922, respectively. I read about 10 pages of the first story and knew it wasn't for me. "The Heir: A Love Story", however, pulled me in right away. Mr Chase, a mild-mannered bachelor insurance man, inherits a large country estate from an aunt he has never met. Unused to large houses, servants, tenants, gardens and animals, he is overwhelmed by the place, which is almost completely mortgaged and is to be sold. Upon its sale, Mr Chase is to receive a small income. But as preparations for the sale begin, Mr Chase gradually explores and comes to know the place, its people and his own family's heritage that it represents. A lovely story that I enjoyed, especially Sackville-West's descriptions of the house and gardens.


Houses play an important part in both of the previous books and in Sackville-West's life, so English Country Houses (1941), was a fitting little non-fiction work (85 pages with lovely illustrations) to finish out the month. This was part of a larger "Writers' Britain" series from the 1940s, in which noted authors wrote about various aspects of Britain. The book is roughly organized by eras and architectural styles. Although most of the places were unfamiliar to me, I was able to follow and appreciate how much she packed into this little book.

>11 cbl_tn: Part two really slowed the book to a crawl, but I didn't mind so much because I felt its reflective nature was exactly what was needed.

>12 kac522: The Heir sounds really good. I'll have to see if I can dig up a copy.

>13 amanda4242: You might like Seducers in Ecuador, too--a guy decides that life is better with blue-tinted glasses and it sort of goes on from there. It wasn't for me, but she wrote it for Virginia Woolf, who loved it. Both stories together were about 110 pages.

And I too appreciated the reflective nature in the second half of All Passion Spent. It seemed right.

>11 cbl_tn:, >13 amanda4242: For some reason I had expected not to like Sackville-West, so I was surprised when 3 out of the 4 things I read were so enjoyable for me. I'm going to see if I can find a copy of The Edwardians and perhaps some other short stories.

I read The Land by Vita Sackville-West. This was a long poem in four parts; winter, spring, summer and fall. It focused on nature and farming. I was unable to access anything else by either author.

>16 Kristelh: If you don't mind e-books there are a few Sackville-West titles available on Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34850

>17 amanda4242:, thank you, Amanda. I will check it out.

The April thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/349738

A Note of Explanation by Vita Sackville-West, illustrated by Kate Baylay

A sprightly little confection about a spirit that lives in Queen Mary's Dolls' House. This was recently reprinted, with lovely illustrations by Baylay, after lingering for years in the miniature library of the very dollhouse where the story is set.