Description

Dorothy Wellesley was a poet, traveller, heiress and rebel. When she became the lover of Vita Sackville-West, it wrecked her marriage to the future Duke of Wellington. Through Vita, Dorothy met Virginia Woolf and gained a unique view of the iconic and intensely self-absorbed Bloomsbury Group.

W.B. Yeats hailed her as one of the most talented poets of her generation. She was his intimate friend in his final years and his muse. Yet despite being a writer, editor and champion of poetry throughout her life, she ranks highly among the most overlooked women poets of the 20th century.

This intimate biography draws on unpublished material, including private Wellesley family papers and hitherto unknown source material, to create a riveting story of love, secret friendships and betrayal. Unconventional, reckless and often vulnerable, Dorothy Wellesley was a woman ahead of her time.

Publisher Review

A fascinating portrait of a maverick member of one of the nation’s most famous families, told by her granddaughter with clear-eyed vigour * Alexandra Shulman, former Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue * An extraordinary woman, an extraordinary life. This is an engaging study – a treat of a book. * Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones’s Diary * The amount of scandal and Intrigue in the first ten pages is phenomenal * The Mail on Sunday * Wellesley paints a moving and detailed picture of that platonic but devoted friendship [with W.B. Yeats] judging it “much more complex than that of mentor and muse” * TLS * A tender, warm biography … A story for our times * The Independent * The charm of the biography comes from the author providing glimpses of her feelings as she learns more about her grandmother’s past. * Aspects of History * Jane Wellesley’s account of her grandmother’s extraordinary life is written with enormous insight and warmth * The Independent *