16/07/2019
The west country based local television station “Bristol TV” which broadcasts at Channel 7 on Freeview plus on Sky and Virgin cable services, names “Vita and Virginia” as a recommended film of the week. The movie is now out at cinemas and looks at the intertwined lives and blossoming lesbian romance between the writers Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Both women were members of the influential Bloomsbury Circle in the 1920s and 30s, ironically part of the capital which is now home to the celebrated and important LGBT bookstore known as “Gay's The Word”. Woolf is perhaps the better remembered of the two writers today, with her novels such as “Orlando” and “To The Lighthouse” still celebrated and a must read for all students of English literature. Both women had a joie de vivre and enjoyed life in a liberal circle of artists and thinkers in an often troubled and dark period in European history. Tragically, Virginia, who had always struggled with her emotional health, took her own life in 1941, during some of the worst days of World War Two. However, she left behind an enormous and much loved opus of letters, essays and stories. If you have not enjoyed her writing, then do pop along to your local library or bookstore and search for her works.