Paper Darts

Virginia Woolf often wrote as many as six letters a day. This collection is illustrated with contemporary photographs and paintings - many of them by members of the Bloomsbury Group, such as Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and Duncan Grant - and aims to evoke the literary and artistic life of the day. The letters - at times witty and irreverent, at times melancholy and introspective - are possibly even more revealing for their insights into the complex personality of the novelist herself. "A true letter", she insisted, "should be like a film of wax pressed close to the graving of the mind". The book contains biographical notes on the main recipients of the letters, together with background information on Virginia Woolf's life and work. Frances Spalding's previous books include "British Art Since 1900" and biographies of the painters Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell.