Behind the Mask

Author/Guide: Matthew Dennison

Why a Booktrail?

1892 – 1962: Vita Sackville-West : Aristocrat, literary celebrity, devoted wife, lesbian, recluse…..

ISBN: 978-0007486984
Genre: Biography/memoirs

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What you need to know before your trail

Vita Sackville-West was many things, but she was never straightforward.

In this stunning portrait of Vita Sackville-West, Matthew Dennison traces the triumph and contradictions of Vita’s extraordinary life. His narrative charts a fascinating course from Vita’s lonely childhood at Knole, through her affectionate but ‘open’ marriage to Harold Nicolson (during which both husband and wife energetically pursued homosexual affairs, Vita most famously with Virginia Woolf), and through Vita’s literary successes and disappointments, to the famous gardens the couple created at Sissinghurst.

The book tells how, from her privileged world of the aristocracy, Sackville-West brought her penchant for costume, play-acting and rebellion to the artistic vanguard of modern Britain.

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England - London
C: Ebury St - The Sackville residence

Travel Guide

Visit Kent

Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson (9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962) was an English poet, novelist, and garden designer.

In 1913, at age 21, Vita married the 27-year-old writer and politician Harold George Nicolson in the private chapel at Knole.

The couple had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships before and during their marriage. They were members of The Bloomsbury Group – writers and artists like themselves

In the early 1920s, Sackville-West wrote a memoir, not published until 1973 entitled Portrait of a Marriage which spoke and looked at her relationships.

In December 1922, Sackville-West first met Virginia Woolf at a dinner party in London. They became interested in each other’s work and later on were to have a long affair.
In the 1930s, the family acquired and moved to Sissinghurst Castle, near Cranbrook, Kent. Sissinghurst had once been owned by Vita’s ancestors, so that made it even more appealing than usual. There the couple created the famous gardens that are now run by the National Trust.