Vita Sackville-West, novelist, poet, and biographer, is best known as the friend of Virginia Woolf, who transformed her into an androgynous time-traveler in
Orlando
. The story of Sackville-West's marriage to Harold Nicolson is one of intrigue and bewilderment. In
Portrait of a Marriage
, their son Nigel combines his mother's memoir with his own explanations and what he learned from their many letters. Even during her various love affairs with women, Vita maintained a loving marriage with Harold.
presents an often misunderstood but always fascinating couple. "
is as close to a cry from the heart as anybody writing in English in our time has come, and it is a cry that, once heard, is not likely ever to be forgotten. . . . Unexpected and astonishing."--Brendan Gill,
New Yorker
"The charm of this book lies in the elegance of its narration, the taste with which their son has managed to convey the real, enduring quality of his parents' love for each other."--Doris Grumbach,
New Republic