Charleston

This volume encapsulates the artistic sensibility and casual sophistication of the Bloomsbury Group. In 1916, Virginia Woolf wrote to her sister, Vanessa Bell, that though the farmhouse at Charleston in Sussex was primitive, "you could make it lovely." Six months later, Bell moved in and, treating the house as a blank canvas, went on to create a treasury of Bloomsbury art. As the best remaining example of the decorative style of Duncan Grant and Vanessa bell, Charleston presents the visitor with insights into the art of the Bloomsbury Group. The book provides family memories and anecdotes drawn from a lifetime's experience of Charleston. Each room links the interiors with some of the leading cultural figures of the 20th century, guests such as Vanessa's sister Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey. Specially commissioned photographs portray the esence of the Bloomsbury style both throughout the house, with its painted furniture and walls, decorative items and paintings and in the garden.