I agree with the previous reader, this is it ... the definitive book on Charleston Farmhouse. Although I think this book is more than a glimpse of the house and garden for those unable to visit, it is a surperb reference for those of us that have visited and wish to recall the house, etc. The photography is stunning, the text is informative. A worthwhile addition to any Bloomsbury book collection.

i stumbled across this book on a beautiful indian summer sunday afternoon....it is a treasure for those unable to physically saunter through the rooms and out to the walled garden that is charleston. all photos in colour, all rooms as they were when vanessa bell, duncan grant, family and friends lived and worked there. inspirational.

anyone interested in the bloomsbury group - vanessa bell & duncan grant should definitely add it to their collection

Having first discovered Vanessa Bell through an interest in her sister, Virginia Woolf, I consider myself entirely unqualified to judge her status as a painter. The woman who emerges from these short pieces, however, is witty, honest, and deeply intelligent. The memoirs of her childhood, which comprise the first three selections, are filled with humor and warmth, with the sharper side of her wit directed chiefly at her elder half-brother, George Duckworth. George is also the primary subject of the fourth essay, and it says much of Bell's writing that he comes across as ludicrous (at best) and yet utterly believable. The remaining memoirs are more generous and less acerbic, particularly one about Bell's friend and former lover Roger Fry, recalling the ways in which their love converged with the expansion and evolution of Vanessa's painting. The portrait of Fry is that of a kind, open-handed man, brilliant as a teacher if not as a painter; Vanessa, despite being "not a writer," manages to convey deep emotion with dignity and a wonderful lack of sentimentality.

Perhaps my favorite piece is the final one, a lecture Vanessa gave to students at her son's school. In addition to being hugely amusing, it's one of the clearest and least pretentious discussions I've yet seen on what it means to be a painter.

Read this book--not for the sake of Bloomsbury hype, or for the gossip-value of Bell's unconventional personal life; read it because she was an exceptional woman and artist in her own right and this is as close as we can come now to knowing her.

I HAVE BEEN DELIGHTED WITH THIS BOOK. ALTHOUGH I HAVEN'T USED A PATTERN TO STITCH YET I HAVE READ THE BOOK FROM COVER TO COVER BECAUSE ITS LIKE A VISIT TO THE ARTISTS AND WRITERS THAT STIRRED UP THE IMAGINATION OF THE FIRST YEARS OF THE 2OTH CENTURY. IT SEEMS TO PICK UP WITH THE END OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT OF WILLIAM MORRIS' WHICH IS ENJOYING SUCH POPULARITY RIGHT NOW. THIS IS JUST AS INTERESTING