- Published: 04/02/2016
- ISBN: 9781783780785
- 130x20mm
- 320 pages
Have You Been Good?
Vanessa Nicolson
Vanessa Nicolson is the granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. She was born to an illustrious name and an unhappy marriage. Her father, the art historian Ben Nicolson, was homosexual and his marriage to Vanessa’s Italian mother fell apart when Vanessa was very young.
In this powerful and meditative memoir she chronicles her disjointed childhood and reckless youth, including holidays at Sissinghurst Castle with her cousins, and her experience of a liberal English boarding school. Interlinked with her story is that of her daughter Rosa, who died, aged 19.
This book is a meditation on the threads of love and loss that weave through a life and an examination of the meaning of cultural privilege in the context of emotional deprivation.
£9.99
A brutal, frank, and bittersweet memoir of poverty amid privilege
Peter Stothard, author, Alexandria
Beautiful and honest
Victoria Hislop, ‘Summer Read’, Women & Home
Vivid and sometimes painfully honest... She has taken the base and battered metal of her life and turned it into gold