22 Jan Vita Sackville-West

Victoria (Vita) Sackville-West was born in 1892 at Knole House (now owned by the National Trust), near Sevenoaks in Kent, and she spent much of her early life there. In 1913 she married diplomat Harold Nicholson and in 1930 they purchased Sissinghurst Castle, a run-down Elizabethan mansion also in Kent. Vita and Harold immediately set about renovating both the house and the garden. Sissinghurst Castle Garden is their horticultural legacy and today it’s one of the National Trust’s most popular properties.

All Passion Spent (1931), Sackville-West’s most popular novel, was inspired by her love of Sissinghurst and the main character reflects her beliefs about women’s need for control over their lives. The BBC adapted the book as a three-part TV series in 1986, starring the wonderful Wendy Hiller. These days, however, Vita’s literary reputation is overshadowed by the never-ending fascination with her passionate love affair with Virginia Woolf. She died at Sissinghurst in 1962 aged 70. Her body was cremated and the ashes buried in the family crypt in the church of St Michael and All Angels in Withyham, Sussex.