Quotes from Sarah Gristwood

If shrewdness and sharpness be a just cause of separation between man and wife, I think few men in England would keep their wives long.' The

There's nothing closer than a diplomat and a spy.

Vita's relationship with Virginia, which began shortly after, was of a different calibre – a relationship in which both Harold Nicolson and Virginia's husband Leonard were supportive presences. The bond that endured between those two women was predominantly, though not exclusively, one of the heart, and of the mind.

With Edward's death imminent, questions of whether a woman could succeed were irrelevant. The only question was, which woman?