In this stunning new biography of Vita Sackville-West, Matthew Dennison's 'Behind the Mask' 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.

Here, in the first biography to be written of Vita for thirty years, Dennison reveals the whole story and gets behind 'the beautiful mask' of Vita's public achievements to reveal an often troubled persona which heroically resisted compromise on every level. This is a compelling story of love, loss and jealousy, of high-life and low points, of binding affection and illicit passion.

Product description

Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9780007486984
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 300g
Dimensions: 129mm x 198mm x 24mm

Product details

A portrait of an extraordinary, 20th-century life. This biography of the writer Vita Sackville-West draws on wide-ranging sources and the extensive letters that sustained her marriage.

<p><span>A portrait of an extraordinary, 20th-century life. This biography of the writer Vita Sackville-West draws on wide-ranging sources and the extensive letters that sustained her marriage. </span></p>

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