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The Bloomsbury Group

Alice-nice-Alice

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)

Parents

  • Hi

    I love them too, just need enough executive function to get deeply engaged. Thanks for this post, it's inspired me.

  • in reply to JAX43

    Thank you. I am trying really hard, for my mental health’s sake, to stay engaged with people but to completely avoid politics, wars, economics, elections etc. I am powerless in these weighty matters so am concentrating my energies on being creative, viewing art and reading books from an earlier era. I write poetry and take photos myself. We went to the amazing art gallery I mentioned yesterday, also Im so enjoying learning the camera abilities of my new iPhone 17e. I think when we are powerless creativity is the best thing we can do, the best thing we can engage with. 

    In Conwy earlier in our holiday we discovered a ceramics/pottery collective and I spent a large part of my budget there to support the work of the people on the collective by buying several every beautiful pieces. I remember about twenty five years ago people buying my recently published poetry pamphlet and that meant a huge amount to me, so these days I pay forward so to speak by buying anything creative by the local people wherever we go. 

    Alice

Reply
  • in reply to JAX43

    Thank you. I am trying really hard, for my mental health’s sake, to stay engaged with people but to completely avoid politics, wars, economics, elections etc. I am powerless in these weighty matters so am concentrating my energies on being creative, viewing art and reading books from an earlier era. I write poetry and take photos myself. We went to the amazing art gallery I mentioned yesterday, also Im so enjoying learning the camera abilities of my new iPhone 17e. I think when we are powerless creativity is the best thing we can do, the best thing we can engage with. 

    In Conwy earlier in our holiday we discovered a ceramics/pottery collective and I spent a large part of my budget there to support the work of the people on the collective by buying several every beautiful pieces. I remember about twenty five years ago people buying my recently published poetry pamphlet and that meant a huge amount to me, so these days I pay forward so to speak by buying anything creative by the local people wherever we go. 

    Alice

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