Like you I thought that people who had prior knowledge of Vanessa & Vriginia’s life would fare better with it and that there was a certain assumption on the part of the novel that a lot was pre-known; to a certain extent I don’t think that the novel works itself as a piece of fiction as there are too many unanswered questions (i.e. the sexual abuse only being implied) but then we all have different expectations of what a novel should provide.

Most of my Woolf secondary material, including Lee’s biography, is at home at Glasgow with the novels here in London, so when I go home next week I’ll be sure to bring them back with me. I want to devour the biography and diary now and Virginia’s novels that I haven’t yet read; reading Vanessa & Virginia made me crave more, more than reading To the Lighthouse a few weeks ago did!

I think in this case, yes, the author expected us to know quite a lot. It didn’t succeed for me, but I also do not think it would succeed if I did know. I think then all the references with no background would irritate me. One single reference to “Rupert” for example (he died). There is certainly an assumption there (I had googled by this time) that I would know the significance of that person, but the person was not significant in the book.

Loved Abi’s comments on the way Sellers writes about the creation of visual art. This writing was revelatory to me as well. What a delight to experience the artistic process and to have Vanessa’s imagined evaluation of what she had achieved, realising so often what had been revealed. These passages were the ‘aha’ moments for me.

The shared ‘you’ Sue A mentions also worked for me. It emphasised quite powerfully the real connection between them, that one could imagine existed. Such a connection is not always a pleasant experience of course, but real, vivid and intense.

Writing from the imagined perspective of Vanessa did in interesting ways “redress the balance” It is Virginia who is so much better known through her writing. Like many of you, it encourages me to explore her artworks, quite unknown to me at the moment. Are many of you familiar with the paintings?

Thanks so much for having us to your home, Kirsty. It is a very long time since I have been to Oxford, over thirty years actually, so you can imagine what a pleasure it has been. Great reading choice, BTW. My library copy is a hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The design is exquisite and has enhanced the reading experience. Was hard to find at local libraries, but the City of Sydney Library had the best taste, holding three copies in various branches. Well done to them!

Oddly thats made me wonder why Shaw made Midas a photographer in the last NTTVBG book? Maybe its an additional writing device.