
A history of Knole and it's long association with the Sackville family. Knole is a large country house in Kent, ranked as one of the top five largest houses in England. Dating back to the mid fifteenth-century, with its association with the Sackville family beginning in 1603. Before this, Queen Elizabeth granted the estate to her cousin, Thomas Sackville, though he had to buy the lease from its currently owner, Robert Dudley, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth. Written by the noted Bloomsbury author Vita Sackville-West, well known today for her friendship and relationship with fellow author, Virginia Woolf. Sackville-West provided the inspiration for Woolf's beloved novel 'Orlando'. Sackville-West was also a noted garden designer at her house Sissinghurst, the garden of which is still celebrated today. Vita was born and raised at Knole House, writing prolifically there, producing eight full-length novels between the years 1906-1910. This work is a touching look at what the house meant to her and her family. Notably, this work was published in the same year that Vita met Virginia Woolf at a dinner party in London.
Author

Novels of British writer Victoria Mary Sackville-West, known as Vita, include The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931). This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately. While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home. She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961). She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.