by Priya Parmar
In 1914, Adrian married Karin Costelloe, a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. When military conscription was introduced to England in 1916, the couple became conscientious objectors and spent World War I working on a dairy farm in Essex. After the war, Adrian pursued a medical degree and went on to become one of England’s first psychoanalysts. During World War II, Adrian renounced his pacifist views and volunteered as an army doctor at the age of sixty. He died in 1948.
OTTOLINE MORRELL
At the outbreak of World War I, Ottoline and Philip Morrell declared themselves to be conscientious objectors and invited fellow pacifists Duncan Grant, Clive Bell, and Lytton Strachey to live with them at Garsington, their country house in Oxfordshire, for the duration of the war. The Morrells maintained their harmonious open marriage until Ottoline’s death in 1938. Her lovers included Dora Carrington and Bertrand Russell. She continued to support artists and writers to the end of her life, among them Mark Gertler, Aldous Huxley, T. S. Eliot, and Siegfried Sassoon.
DESMOND MACCARTHY AND SAXON SYDNEY-TURNER
During World War I, Desmond MacCarthy worked in naval intelligence. After the war he returned to journalism, writing a weekly column under the name “The Affable Hawk.” In 1920 he became the literary editor of the New Statesman and eventually went on to become the literary critic for The Sunday Times. He never finished his novel. Saxon Sydney-Turner never married and never left the Treasury Office.
MAYNARD KEYNES AND E. M. FORSTER
Maynard Keynes went on to marry Lydia Lopokova, a ballerina from the Ballets Russes. He became arguably the most important economist of the twentieth century. E. M. Forster published five novels and then stopped writing fiction at the age of forty-five. He lived for another forty-six years, publishing nonfiction. His sixth novel, Maurice, was written in 1913 but was not released until 1971, a year after his death. It tells the story of homosexual love in the early twentieth century.
ROGER FRY
Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry became lovers in 1911. She did exhibit her work at his Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition in 1912. Their affair continued until the end of 1913, when Vanessa transferred her romantic affection to Duncan Grant. Roger Fry was heartbroken, and letters written years after the affair speak clearly of his profound attachment. He and Vanessa remained dear friends. He was close to her children and often a guest at Charleston, her home in Sussex.
Helen Fry was never released from the mental hospital. After her death in 1937, it was discovered that her insanity was caused by an irreversible thickening of the skull. Roger wrote to her every week for the rest of his life.
When Roger Fry died, after a fall in 1934, his ashes were buried at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, in a casket designed by Vanessa Bell.
CLIVE BELL
Clive and Vanessa Bell never divorced. In 1919, when Vanessa gave birth to her third child, Angelica, by Duncan Grant, Clive claimed the child as his own. Clive had a string of relationships for the remainder of his life, most notably with the writer Mary Hutchinson.
In 1914 Clive Bell published Art, developing the theory of significant form and earning a reputation as an influential art critic and theorist.
The Bells’ elder son, Julian, named for Thoby, became a writer and poet and served as an ambulance driver in the Spanish Civil War. He was killed in 1937 at the age of twenty-nine. Quentin Bell became an artist and author. He wrote several books about the Bloomsbury Group, the most well known of which is a biography of his aunt Virginia. His daughter, Virginia Nicholson, generously helped in the research for this novel.
LYTTON STRACHEY
During World War I, Lytton Strachey applied to be a conscientious objector but was exempted from military service on health grounds. He spent most of the war at Garsington, Lady Ottoline Morrell’s country home.
In 1918 Strachey published Eminent Victorians. It was an immediate success, and his career as a biographer was established.
In 1917 the young painter Dora Carrington fell deeply in love with Strachey. She and her husband, Ralph Partridge, lived in a romantic partnership with Lytton at Ham Spray House in Wiltshire. Lytton died of undiagnosed stomach cancer in 1932. Dora Carrington committed suicide two months later.
VIRGINIA AND LEONARD WOOLF
Lytton Strachey did begin suggesting that Leonard Woolf marry Virginia Stephen as early as the spring of 1909. Leonard Woolf and Virginia Stephen became engaged in the summer of 1912 and married that August. Like Vanessa, Virginia refused two proposals before she said yes.
Virginia Woolf published her first novel, The Voyage Out, in March 1915. The same year, she and Leonard moved to Hogarth House in Richmond and later founded the Hogarth Press, which published all but one of Virginia Woolf’s subsequent novels, each with a cover designed by Vanessa Bell.
When Virginia committed suicide in 1941, she left two letters, one for Vanessa and one for Leonard. She wrote to Leonard, “I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been.”
VANESSA BELL
Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant lived in a partnership defined by painting and friendship until her death in April 1961. They moved between various houses in Bloomsbury and Charleston, her farmhouse in Sussex. Virginia and Leonard Woolf settled at Monk’s House in nearby Rodmell.
Vanessa Bell never forgave her sister for the liaison with Clive. Years later her daughter, Angelica, remembers the wariness with which her mother treated her aunt, Virginia. And from Virginia, Angelica always sensed “a desperate plea for forgiveness.”
Vanessa Bell’s paintings now hang in museums all over the world.
IT IS NOT EASY to fictionalise the Bloomsbury Group, as their lives are so well documented. They were prolific correspondents and diarists, and there is a wealth of existing primary material. For me the difficulty came in finding enough room for invention in the negative spaces they left behind. The characters in the novel are very much fictional creations. The broad external chronologies and events are as accurate as possible, with the exception of a few small adjustments and alterations I made to better tell the story.
Vanessa and Clive’s second child was initially named Gratian and then for a period of time was renamed Claudian before he was ultimately called Quentin some time after his first birthday. I call him Quentin for the sake of clarity. Many of Vanessa Bell’s early paintings were destroyed in a fire at her studio. Apart from Nursery Tea, Studland Beach, Iceland Poppies, the sketches of Julian, and the portraits of Virginia, the paintings I describe are fictional but are based upon descriptions in her many letters and are subjects and themes she would return to in her work throughout her life. The internal landscapes of the characters are completely imagined and Vanessa Bell never kept a diary.
Many of the unlikelier details in the novel are rooted in fact. Virginia did appal her family by requesting a valuable table from Violet. Virginia also did write to Violet for weeks after Thoby died, outlining the various stages of his fictional recovery. Violet did in fact learn of Thoby’s death from the newspaper. Virginia, Duncan, and Adrian did dress up as the entourage of the Emperor of Abyssinia and tour the Dreadnought. Vanessa did lose her engagement ring down a well just before she began an affair with Roger Fry.
The choreography of the complicated romantic lives of the characters as much as possible follows the historical template. And remarkably, within the group, they all remained close friends. Duncan did have love affairs with Lytton, Maynard, Adrian, and finally Vanessa. Maynard and Lytton also had an early affair. Roger and Ottoline had a brief liaison just before he left for Constantinople. Clive did rekindle his affair with Mrs Raven Hill and simultaneously pursue his sister-in-law in the same year. And Vanessa wrote amicably to Clive in 1909 and cheerfully referred to Mrs Raven Hill as “your whore.” Virginia and Clive did write suggestive, flirtatious letters alluding to their affair for several years after the family trip to Cornwall in 1908. Judging from their letters, it is likely that, although Clive clearly would have preferred it otherw
ise, the affair remained platonic.
I took one important detour from recorded history with the argument between Vanessa and Virginia over the affair with Clive. We do not know whether it was ever mentioned between them, and Vanessa never referred to the liaison in her letters. However, in 1925, Virginia Woolf wrote, “My affair with Clive and Nessa turned more of a knife in me than anything else has ever done.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to particularly thank:
Kaleem Aftab, Olivier Bell, Sarah Blake, Judy Clain, Darren Clarke, Eve Ensler, Sophie Deveson Sarah Hall, Emma Healey, Lisa Highton, Nancy Horan, Howie Kahn, Jainee McCarroll, Paula McLain, Naomi Nicholson, Zahra Moussavi, Sharon Kay Penman, Matt Pycha, Katy Raffin, Tamar Rydzinski, Noah Sher, Dr. Roger Savage, Helen Simonson, and, especially, Trish Todd, who made everything happen.
Virginia Nicholson for her invaluable help and kindness. For taking me to Charleston and sharing her Bloomsbury memories. For being so gracious, supportive, and lovely.
My extraordinary, extraordinary agent, Stephanie Cabot, who has made this book so happy. Rebecca Gardner, Anna Worrall, Ellen Goodson, and everyone at the Gernert Company.
Susanna Porter, my magical editor who, with huge perception and unfailing sensitivity, found the story inside the manuscript. And Priyanka Krishnan for helping me at every turn.
Barbara Bachman, Gina Centrello, Susan Corcoran, Kristin Fassler, Jennifer Garza, Jennifer Hershey, Kim Hovey, Vincent La Scala, Libby McGuire, Nicole Morano, Quinne Rogers, Robbin Schiff, and everyone at Ballantine/Random House who have taken such beautiful care of this book.
Helen Garnons Williams for her deft, kind wisdom and humor, Ros Ellis, Elizabeth Woabank, Lynsey Sutherland, Oliver Holden-Rea, and everyone at Bloomsbury UK for their wonderful care.
Kristin Cochrane for her brilliant notes and fantastic support, Louise Dennys, Brad Martin, and everyone at Random House Canada who have given this book such a wonderful home there.
The staffs of The Charleston, The British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and Tate Britain who have been so helpful and kind.
And thank you to my dear friends who have rooted for me all along.
In London: Dan, Ewen, Jamie, Burt, Harriet, Charlotte, Alec, Ben, Sophie, Max, Minnie, Alex, Katie, Oliver, Kate, Tim, and Sam. And especially Sadie, Katy, Adriana, Simon, Felix, Jack, Jessica, Poppy, and my godchildren, Louis and Logan. You make London home.
In Hawaii: the beloved Smarts, Tora and Kirk; Denise, Ash, and Cliff; Lisa and David; Melissa and Neal; Denise T., Jane, Michelle, and Megan; Chris and Koah; Matt and Naomi; the dearest Garfinkles: Terri and Benjy; Matt and Angela for thirty years of friendship; and Wendy and Chad for being my hanai family.
And the kids who are no longer kids. For the years and the flowers and the song and for making everything mean more. Amber, Chloe, Eli, Koa, Leila, Max, and Wyatt.
Philippa Gregory and Anthony Mason. For their astonishing, unwavering kindness and bolstering wisdom. For their rare, true friendship.
And to my family: my stepdaughters, Madison and Ava; my nephew Wyatt; my new siblings, Meredith and JD; and my brother and sister, Nicky and Tina, who are my watermarks. For a million things every day, thank you.
To my mother, who read every draft, and my father, who believed in me. You both are woven into every word I will ever write. I love you.
And with all my love to Brennon. For being my home.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Educated at Mount Holyoke College, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Oxford, PRIYA PARMAR is the author of one previous novel, Exit the Actress. She divides her time between Hawaii and London.
www.priyaparmar.com