Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH, usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer.
Sackville-West around 1915, from The Life of V.Sackville-West by Victoria Glendinning
Victoria Josefa Dolores Catalina Sackville-West, Baroness Sackville. Vita's mother, circa 1885
Vita in childhood
Vita Sackville-West in 1913
Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. Inspired by the tumultuous family history of the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's lover and close friend, it is arguably one of her most popular novels; Orlando is a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies.
Cover of the 1928 edition