Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West

Zeker niet de ultieme biografie over de excentrieke lesbische schrijfster-tuinierster die met haar man Harold Nicolson de bekende tuinen van Sissinghurst creëerde. Er wordt uitentreuren geciteerd uit de sentimentele brieven die de twee elkaar schreven en die een soort ingewikkelde Wiedergutmachung vormden voor de grotendeels totaal van elkaar gescheiden levens die zij in feite leefden.

An interesting look at the author of THE EDWARDIANS, of the Bloomsbury era and one women who lived life on her own terms. Written with clarity and without judgment, lots of gardening details (she was an obsessive gardener) tended to drag the narrative, but overall it revealed a sophisticated intelligent woman who loved, broke hearts, and made a mark on the period.

3247. Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West, by Victoria Glendinning (read Oct 1, 1999) This won the 1983 Whitbread Award for Biography. I found it very impresive, even tho Vita Sackville-West, wife of Harold Nicolson, is not a favorite person of mine. I only read her The Edwardians and was not overly impressed. But I thought this was a superlative biography.

Harold Nicholson and Vita Sackville-west were a beauty of a couple. Their sons wrote about them in a book called PORTRAIT OF A MARRIAGE.