I wondered if there are others here who like me are into The Bloomsbury Group and their satellites? I was ignorant of the amazing work they produced for a large part of my life, they were just vaguely famous but I had no idea why ( I studied sciences at uni and careers which evolved from that). Then I discovered a small paperback book of the love letters between Vita (Sackville-West) and Virginia (Woolf), I was immediately hooked.
Im gradually buying and reading everything I can of their writing, in first editions where possible, researching their lives, understanding their art and collecting their books. Im loving it especially as it is such a fascinating and intelligent collection of people who lived through some of the most important years of the 20C yet it is contained within a bubble which the present I detest does not touch). I am enjoying it as escapism and also an intellectual challenge. There are incredible modernist novels, post impressionist art, relationships which challenged the then accepted way to live and love, outstanding but under appreciated poetry, letters upon letters between many of them, and I feel safe being in my mind in their world
It probably helps that I lived in Bloomsbury 1976-1979 so know that part of their physical world well, but Sissinghurst, Knole, Charleston, Rodmel and their other homes are as yet still aspirations.
There are a few movies about them made well after the events. Vita and Virginia is the most successful in my view, but Carrington I think the most fascinating. There are numerous biographies, several by their children, though these are not necessarily the most objective, plus many critical and academic works. Truly though one has to read the original works, not the opinions of others about them.
We were talking on Conwy station earlier today about Vanessa Bell’s family photos many of which have been published in books, two such books in particular shed a strange light on the evolution of social values in terms of what is seen as acceptable and what not being separated by maybe twenty years. It challenged me to realise how incrementally affected I have been by social changes between these two books - I need to think further about this. Yet my crucial conclusion was that how horrified I would be if after my death my family photos, letters, diaries and jottings were raided for publishing as these were.
Anyway if there are other Bloomsbury fans on here Id love to discuss
Thanks
Alice
(Please excuse typos and spelling errors)