Vita: vivid, complex, many-sided

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 20

Vita: vivid, complex, many-sided

Vita: The Life of V. Sackville~West. By Victoria Glendinning. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983. 407 pp. Notes and Index. $42.50. (Reviewed by Margaret Quigley) In 1973 Nigel Nicolson, younger son of Harold Nicolson and Vita SackvilleWest, published that extraordinary book “Portrait of a Marriage.” Containing as it did Vita SackvilleWest’s autobiographical account of her love for Violet Trefusis, and Nigel Nicolson’s commentaries on the unusual marriage which his parents forged, the book made fascinating and moving reading. Yet it seemed to many readers to leave unanswered a number of questions. In particular the gulf between the passion of the earlier years and the calm of the last years, when Harold had become in effect a week-end boarder at Sissinghurst, was unbridged by any attempt at explanation. Now a new and splendid biography of Vita fills in some of the gaps and gives a more coherent and rounded picture of both Vita and Harold. The author does admit that inevitably her concentration on Vita has a diminishing effect on her portrait of Harold, but she is careful always to make his position clear and understandable. “Portrait of a Marriage” gained much in intensity from Nigel Nicolson’s close relationship with the people he wrote of. "Vita,” perhaps because Victoria Glendinning is more detached, is less exciting to read, but more balanced in its approach. Victoria Glendinning’s previous books include excellent and prizewinning (not always the same thing) biographies of Elizabeth Bowen and Edith Sitwell. She has shown in this

latest life her usual meticulous attention to the arduous research which lies behind any worthwhile biography, and an ability to write with a sympathetic understanding of her subject, but without condescension or special pleading. “Some of vita’s behaviour was indefensible,” she writes. “I am aware that while to some readers she will be an inspiration, to others she may seem unlikeable.” Vita’s story is so unusual and absorbing that the author wisely records it in a straightforward narrative, using frequent extracts from the vast mass of letters and diaries at her disposal, to strengthen the emotional impact. Born in 1892, only child of Lord

Sackville and his half-Spanish wife and cousin, Victoria, Vita grew up in splendour at Knole, knowing always that because of her gender she could never inherit her beloved home. Her marriage to Harold Nicolson gave her stability, two sons, whom she loved dearly, but found difficult to understand, and eventually a home at Sissinghurst where she created one of England’s most famous gardens. Victoria Glendinning examines perceptively the bonds of friendship which cemented this marriage and the tensions caused by the divisions and conflicts of Vita’s difficult and secretive personality. She traces without sensationalism the violent switch-back of Vita’s devotion to her tempestuous mother, the passionate involvement with Violet Trefusis, the intense relationship with Virginia Woolf, and the many other unpublicised love affairs. She pays equal attention to Vita’s professional life, avoiding great stretches of literary criticism, but revealing Vita’s deep grief at the realisation that she would never be a great writer. The last section of the book deals predominantly with Vita’s achievements as a gardener, both at Sissinghurst and as an immense influence on other enthusiasts through her broadcasting and her “Observer” articles. Many of the thousands of visitors who flock to Sissinghurst each year to be moved by the deserted tower room, which remains just as Vita left it, and entranced by the loveliness she created in the garden, will welcome this biography of such a compelling figure. “Vita” gives a clear and absorbing picture of a vivid, complex, and many sided woman.