Broderie Anglaise by Violet Trefusis

Witty and amusing fictional account of the key event of Violet Trefusis? youth: her affair with Vita Sackville-West. The central character, Alexa, is based on Violet’s impression of Virginia Woolf. Staged as a drawing room comedy, the novel centres on a meeting between Alexa, and her rival Anne (Violet), at which they discuss their mutual lover, Lord Shorne (Vita). Useful introduction by Victoria Glendinning describes Broderie Anglaise as another book to “celebrate, satirize, justify, construct, and deconstruct the extra-ordinary personalities of Vita Sackville-West and of the two women who were most important to her.”