the spicy love triangle

The antics of those with blue blood don’t shock us, in fact we covet their blatant flaunting of taboos and we (albeit secretly and with much envy) gag at what seems like their infinite potential and unlimited opportunities for fornication, frolicking and cavorting. Having said that, within the ranks of nobility there are those who are heads and shoulders above the rest when it comes to outlandish behaviour – and quirkiness of ancestry for that matter. The wildly unorthodox life experiences of Baroness Vita Sackville-West, prolific lesbian and bisexual lover, mother of two, diplomat’s wife, bestselling novelist of over 35 books, poet, newspaper columnist, letter writer, diarist and passionate garden designer, are the ultimate case in point. She yo-yoed with passionate fervour between a bevy of fabulous women and her steadfast bisexual husband. You may think Vita’s key legacy is her decade-long romantic and literary canoodling with Virginia Woolf and the spicy love triangle between Virginia, Vita and her childhood obsession Violet Keppel, but that’s just one facet. There was infinitely more to this passionate bohemian with her insatiable lust for life, for literature, for women, for men as well as for the natural world. It seems unsurprising then, that in the very end, her plants and garden effectively excited her as much as her writing or her romps within a ménage à trois. 

Cecile Paul – Vita the Insatiable Muse of Virginia Woolf