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Violet Keppel
Violet Trefusis (''née'' Keppel; 6 June 1894 – 29 February 1972) was an English socialite and author. She is chiefly remembered for her lengthy affair with the writer Vita Sackville-West that both women continued after their respective marriages. It was featured in novels by both parties; in Virginia Woolf's novel ''Orlando: A Biography''; and in many letters and memoirs of the period roughly from 1912 to 1922. She may have been the inspiration for aspects of the character Lady Montdore in Nancy Mitford's ''Love in a Cold Climate'' and of Muriel in Harold Acton's ''The Soul's Gymnasium'' (1982). Trefusis herself wrote many novels, as well as non-fiction works, both in English and in French. Although some of her books sold well, others went unpublished, and her overall critical heritage remains lukewarm. Early life Born Violet Keppel, she was the daughter of Alice Keppel, who was married to George Keppel (British Army officer, born 1865), George Keppel, a son of the 7th Earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of Middle Ages, medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful House of Medici, Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Italian language, standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Favourite
A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In Post-classical Europe, post-classical and Early modern Europe, early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler. It was especially a phenomenon of the 16th century, 16th and 17th century, 17th centuries, when government had become too complex for many hereditary rulers with no great interest in or talent for it, and political institutions were still evolving. From 1600 to 1660 there were particular successions of all-powerful minister-favourites in much of Europe, particularly in Spain, England, France and Sweden. By the late 17th century, the royal favourite as quasi-Prime minister, Prime Minister declined; in France, the King resolved to Absolutism (European history), rule directly, while in Britain, as the power of the monarch relative to Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament declined, executive power slowly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Marriage
Open marriage is a form of non-monogamy in which the partners of a dyadic marriage agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual or romantic relationships, without this being regarded by them as infidelity, and consider or establish an open relationship despite the implied monogamy of marriage. There are variant forms of open marriage such as swinging and polyamory, each with the partners having varying levels of input into their spouse's activities. Terminology A general definition of an open marriage is that there is an agreement between the two partners to have some degree of sexual interaction outside the couple. There are variant forms of open marriage, each with the partners having varying levels of input on their spouse's activities. The term ''open marriage'' originated in sociology and anthropology. Through the 1960s, researchers used "closed marriage" to indicate the practices of communities and cultures where individuals were intended to marry based upon social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diana Souhami
Diana Souhami (born 25 August 1940) is an English writer of biographies, short stories and plays. She is noted for her unconventional biographies of prominent lesbians. Early life and education Souhami was born amidst the London Blitz at the Crown & Anchor pub in Edmonton. She and her mother Freda subsequently took refuge in Tilehurst with her grandmother and then Cardiff, where her father was working. Back in London, Souhami grew up in West Hampstead and attended Emmanuel Church of England Primary School. She is of Sephardic Jewish descent via Spain and Turkey. Souhami studied philosophy at University of Hull. Career Before turning to writing biography, Souhami worked in the publications department of the BBC. While there, she published short stories, wrote plays that were performed at Edinburgh Festival, The Kings Head in Islington, and broadcast as radio and television plays by the BBC. She devised an exhibition for the British Council called ''A Woman's Place: The Changing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, writer, broadcaster and gardener. His wife was Vita Sackville-West. Early life and education Nicolson was born in Tehran, Persia, the youngest son of diplomat Arthur Nicolson, 1st Baron Carnock. He spent his boyhood in various places throughout Europe and the Near East and followed his father's frequent postings, including in St. Petersburg, Russia, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Madrid, Sofia, Bulgaria, Sofia, and Tangier. He was educated at The Grange School in Folkestone, Kent, followed by Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1909 with a British undergraduate degree classification, third class degree. Nicolson entered the Foreign Office that same year, after passing second in the competitive exams for the Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service, Diplomatic Service and Civil Service (United Kingdom), Civil Service. Diplomatic car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vita Sackville-West Diadem
Vita or VITA (: vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to: People * Vita (given name) * Vita (surname) * Vita (rapper), stage name of American rapper LaVita Raynor (born 1976) Fictional characters * Vita (Nanoha), in the ''Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha'' series * Vita, a blue-haired girl in KidZania Mexican entertainment centers Places * Vita, Manitoba, Canada, a small town * Vita, Maharashtra, India, a small town * Vita, Sicily, Italy, a city * Viţa, a village in Nușeni Commune, Bistriţa-Năsăud County, Romania * Vita, Ávila, Spain, a village Business * FAW Vita, a car produced by the FAW Group * Opel Vita, a car made by Opel * Vita (brand), a brand name of the Hong Kong–based beverage company Vitasoy * PlayStation Vita, a handheld game console by Sony VITA * Views, Inventory, Transformation and Artefacts * Virginia Information Technologies Agency * IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program * VMEbus International Trade Association Other uses * Vita (electoral lis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portrait Of A Marriage
''Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson'' is the 1973 biography of writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West compiled by her son Nigel Nicolson from her journals and letters. Synopsis The book relates to Sackville-West's complicated marriage to writer and politician Harold Nicolson. Two chapters are written by Sackville-West. They are centred on herself and her passion for Violet Trefusis for whom she abandoned Harold Nicolson, Vita's bisexual husband and her two children, Nigel and Benedict Nicolson, Ben. Three chapters were written by her son Nigel Nicolson. They present the sexual and emotional life secrets of his mother: "I did not know Violet. I met her only twice, and by then she had become a galleon, no longer the pinnace of her youth, and I did not recognize in her sails the high wind which had swept my mother away […]. I did not know that Vita could love like this, had loved like this, because she would not speak of it to her son. Now that I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Nicolson
Nigel Nicolson (19 January 1917 – 23 September 2004) was an English writer, publisher and politician. Early life and education Nicolson was the second son of writers Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West; he had an elder brother Benedict Nicolson, Ben, an art historian. The boys grew up in Kent, first at Long Barn, near their mother's ancestral home at Knole, and then at Sissinghurst Castle, where their parents created a famous garden. Nicolson was sent to board at Summer Fields School, Summer Fields, a Preparatory school (UK), prep school in Oxford; he then attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II, he served with the Grenadier Guards, later writing their official history. Career Nicolson wrote many books. He and George Weidenfeld co-founded the publishing house Weidenfeld & Nicolson, of which he was a director from 1948 to 1992. He also worked as a broadcaster and was a member of the English Heritage, Ancient Monuments Board. Although ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman à Clef
A ''roman à clef'' ( ; ; ) is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people and the "key" is the relationship between the non-fiction and the fiction. This metaphorical key may be produced separately—typically as an explicit guide to the text by the author—or implied, through the use of epigraphs or other literary techniques. Madeleine de Scudéry created the ''roman à clef'' in the 17th century to provide a forum for her thinly veiled fiction featuring political and public figures. An author might choose the ''roman à clef'' as a means of satire, of writing about controversial topics, reporting inside information on scandals without giving rise to charges of libel, the opportunity to turn the tale the way the author would like it to have gone, the opportunity to portray autobiographical experiences without having to expose the author as the subject, avoiding incrimination that could ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and became heir apparent when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, acceded to the throne in 1952. He was created Prince of Wales in 1958 and his investiture was held in 1969. He was educated at Cheam School and Gordonstoun, and later spent six months at the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia. After completing a history degree from the University of Cambridge, Charles served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1976. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer. They had two sons, William and Harry. After years of estrangement, Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, after they had each engaged in well-publicised extramarital affairs. Diana died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash the foll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonia Rosemary Keppel
Sonia Rosemary Cubitt, (''née'' Keppel, previously The Hon. Mrs. Cubitt; 24 May 1900 – 16 August 1986) was a British socialite, author and aristocrat. She was the first wife of Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe, and, through her only daughter Rosalind, was the maternal grandmother of Queen Camilla. Sonia is also known as the daughter of Alice Keppel, a mistress of King Edward VII. Childhood Sonia Rosemary Keppel was born on 24 May 1900, as the youngest child of the Hon. George Keppel (1865–1947) and Alice Frederica Keppel (née Edmonstone; 1868–1947). Her mother was the youngest child of Sir William Edmonstone, 4th Baronet, while George was a son of William Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle, and his wife Sophia Mary Keppel (née MacNab). Sonia's mother Alice was a British society hostess and a long-time royal mistress of King Edward VII. She was a goddaughter of Dame Margaret Greville and inherited some of her fortune. Sonia's only sibling was the English writer and so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
