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Blue Eyes and a Wild Spirit
A Life of Dorothy Wellesley
Brief Description
Dorothy Wellesley was a poet, traveller, heiress and rebel. When she became the lover of Vita Sackville-West, it wrecked her marriage to the future Duke of Wellington. Through Vita, Dorothy met Virginia Woolf and gained a unique view of the iconic and intensely self-absorbed Bloomsbury Group....
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Blue Eyes and a Wild Spirit
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An intimate portrait of Dorothy Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, lover of Vita Sackville-West and part of the Bloomsbury Set.
An intimate portrait of Dorothy Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, lover of Vita Sackville-West and part of the Bloomsbury Set
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Description
Dorothy Wellesley was a poet, traveller, heiress and rebel. When she became the lover of Vita Sackville-West, it wrecked her marriage to the future Duke of Wellington. Through Vita, Dorothy met Virginia Woolf and gained a unique view of the iconic and intensely self-absorbed Bloomsbury Group. W.B. Yeats hailed her as one of the most talented poets of her generation. She was his intimate friend in his final years and his muse. Yet despite being a writer, editor and champion of poetry throughout her life, she ranks highly among the most overlooked women poets of the 20th century.
This intimate biography draws on unpublished material, including private Wellesley family papers and hitherto unknown source material, to create a riveting story of love, secret friendships and betrayal. Unconventional, reckless and often vulnerable, Dorothy Wellesley was a woman ahead of her time.
'The amount of scandal and intrigue in the first ten pages is phenomenal' - Mail on Sunday
'A fascinating, reckless and maverick member of one of the nation's most famous families' - Alexandra Shulman
'A tender, warm biography... A story for our times' - The Independent
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781806491643
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 20 August 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Profile Books Ltd
Edition: Main
Illustration: 2x 8-page plate sections
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 34.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 420g
Pages: 448
About the Author
Jane Wellesley is a writer and producer. Before starting a long career in the television and film industry, she worked in the art world. She then worked at the BBC and later was a researcher at Granada TV. She became an independent producer, firstly running Antelope Films, then jointly running and owning Warner Sisters Film and TV until 2002.Her first book, Wellington: a Journey Through My Family, was published in 2008 and re-issued in 2015 for the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo.
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