Study of a writer

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33253, 16 June 1973, Page 10

Study of a writer

V. Sackville-West. By

Michael Stevens. Michael Joseph.

107 pp. Appen-

dices and Index.

Michael Stevens, who wrote this study of Victoria Sackville-West as his thesis for his Ph.D., sub-titles it “A Critical Biography” and this is probably the best summary of his achievement in this slim but worth-while volume. He gives a straightforward, concise account of V. Sackville-West’s life but the value of this book lies in his examination of the extent to which the author’s personal experience is reflected in her writing. Victoria Sackville-West, descendant of an old English family and granddaughter of a Spanish gypsy dancer, Pepita, was brought up at Knole, one of England’s great country homes. Her love for Knole, her heritage, and later for Sissinghurst Castle where she lived with her diplomat/writer husband, Harold Nicholson, greatly influenced both the material she chose for her novels, biographies and poetry and the way she treated it. Michael Stevens shows this clearly and also gives a clear perceptive analysis of V. Sack-ville-West’s character, and the discipline she imposed on her emotions in order to produce her works. It is the complex character of the subject which makes this book so fascinating and it is to the author’s credit that he has written of her life and works in such a way as to send the reader straight to those works. Mr Stevens provides a realistic appraisal of the extent and the limitations of V. SackviPe-West’s talent as a poet, biographer and novelist. He himself obviously, has found her well worth study but he does not allow his enthusiasm to blind his critical judgment. The book is well produced and exhaustively supplied with lists of dates, works, articles and reviews. A well-written and workmanlike study of an interesting writer.