Details

ISBN-10: 191276640X
ISBN-13: 9781912766406
Publisher: Handheld Classics
Publish Date: 05/20/2021
Dimensions: 8.40" L, 5.30" W, 1.00" H

Valentine Ackland: A Transgressive Life

Paperback

Price: $21.99

Overview

At last, a biography of Valentine Ackland.

Frances Bingham has written the definitive biography
of this remarkable
cross-dressing woman, poet and activist, recovering an important part of
British lesbian history and creating a testament to queerness and gender
identity in Valentine’s transgressive life.

Mrs. Turpin was Valentine Ackland, on the run from her
recent disastrous marriage. She was soon to meet the love of her life, Sylvia Townsend Warner, already a celebrity for her dashing debut
novel Lolly
Willowes. They would live in Dorset
together in a passionate relationship until Valentine’s death in 1969.

Valentine was a dedicated poet, deeply involved with
Communism during the 1930s, and an environmentalist and peace campaigner.
Recently released MI5 files show that she was blacklisted for confidential work
during World War II, and remained under long-term surveillance.

Despite her commitment to Sylvia, Valentine had many
affairs with women who fell for her androgynous beauty and her masterful
conduct of an amour. She also struggled with alcoholism, but the relationship with Sylvia
survived all challenges.

“Bingham prompts the reader to keep turning the pages of this well-researched, idiosyncratic, and fascinating biography.” – New York Journal of Books

“The cross-dressing Communist lesbian, her closet gay husband … and a love story like no other.” – The Daily Mail

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Reviews

"Describing
her subject as "a complex, mercurial human being," Bingham prompts the
reader to keep turning the pages of this well-researched, idiosyncratic, and
fascinating biography ... Bingham brings Ackland, a complicated and complex
woman, and her poetry, to a new audience." - New York Journal of Books

"A
new biography of Ackland . . . is to reveal the level of secret service
confusion about this unconventional pair of writers at the beginning of the
long period during which they were both objects of state scrutiny. All their
correspondence was stopped and read by MI5 officers without their knowledge,
and Ackland's later attempts to enlist for significant war work were
blocked." - The Observer

"Frances Bingham is a doughty champion and a good biographer." - The Oldie

"The cross-dressing Communist lesbian, her closet gay husband ... and a love story like no other." - The Daily Mail

"Ackland was a powerhouse in facing up to what she saw as an unfair world for women and workers and with this new biography Bingham reminds us what an amazingly modern woman Ackland was." - The Morning Star

"Bingham has given us an admirable biography about a complex subject who was as beautiful to look at as she was difficult to love" - Gay and Lesbian Review

"Frances Bingham has penned a definitive biography of an important poet of the early 20th century, which includes an incisive analysis of gender roles of the era. Impeccably researched and vividly detailed, the book is also an indelible achievement to queer literature. Ultimately A Transgressive Life is a testament to Valentine's courage and loyalty on all fronts." - EDGE Media Network

More Reviews

Details

ISBN-10: 191276640X
ISBN-13: 9781912766406
Publisher: Handheld Classics
Publish Date: 05/20/2021
Dimensions: 8.40" L, 5.30" W, 1.00" H
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