Although this is a work of fiction, it is indebted to the research of numerous critics and scholars, and in particular to four extraordinary biographies: Frances Spalding’s Vanessa Bell, Angelica Garnett’s Deceived with Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood, Jane Dunn’s Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell: A Very Close Conspiracy, and Hermione Lee’s Virginia Woolf. It also owes an immense debt of gratitude to the following institutions: the University of St. Andrews; the Leverhulme Trust; and Robinson College, Cambridge. Many individuals helped with this novel, including colleagues in the School of English at the University of St. Andrews, the team at New Writing Partnership (particularly Sally Cline and Michelle Spring), Ian Blyth, Alex Bulford, Jane Goldman, Jackie Kay, Eric Langley, Heidi Stalla, Helen Taylor, Jeremy Thurlow, and Molly Thurlow. Especial thanks are due to my agent, Jenny Brown; to my publishers, Sharon Blackie and David Knowles at Two Ravens and Lindsey Smith at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; to Sara Lodge; and to my dear friend and mentor, Jo Campling. It is a source of deep regret that she did not live to see this project published. Finally, this novel owes everything to those two remarkable sisters, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, whose lives and works continue to intrigue, inspire, and delight.

About the Author

SUSAN SELLERS is a professor of English at St. Andrews University in Scotland and coeditor of the Cambridge University Press edition of Virginia Woolf’s works. She is a past recipient of the Cannongate Prize for new writing and is the author of many short stories and nonfiction books. This is her first novel.