Sackville-West, V. (1892-1962), was an English writer whose books reflect her aristocratic, country family background. Her best-known novel, The Edwardians (1930), examines English upper-class life during the reign of Edward VII in the early 1900’s. Set against a background of country estates, the book captures the social and emotional flavor of that time.
Sackville-West also wrote more powerfully of the family in the novels All Passion Spent (1931) and The Dark Island (1934). She dealt with country living in the nonfiction books Country Notes (1939), English Country Houses (1941), and In Your Gardens (1951); and in many of her poems. Her poem The Land (1929) is a modern classic.
Victoria Mary Sackville-West was born on March 9, 1892, in Knole Castle, a country house that was given to her ancestors by Queen Elizabeth I. She traveled widely with her husband, diplomat-author Sir Harold Nicolson. Nigel Nicolson, their son, described their marriage in Portrait of a Marriage (1973). Sackville-West died on June 2, 1962.
