The moving story of the life and work of novelist Virginia Woolf, revealed through her own letters to those closest to her.

Virginia Woolf is considered by many to be one of the greatest British writers and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century.

This collection of Woolf’s letters offers a fascinating insight into her life, illuminating the complex personality of the writer herself and features real samples of her handwriting along with biographical notes and a family tree. The letters range from witty and irreverent to melancholy and introspective, with intimations of the bouts of mental illness that were to lead her to take her own life.

The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs, paintings, and sketches of the people and places with which Virginia Woolf was most closely connected—many members of the Bloomsbury Group, such as Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, and Duncan Grant.

About The Author

Frances Spalding is an art historian, critic, and biographer. Between 2000 and 2015, she taught at Newcastle University, becoming professor of Art History. She acted as editor of The Burlington Magazine from 2015 to 2016, and is now a fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Art. Her books include British Art Since 1900 and biographies of the painters Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell. She lives in London.