For Sylvia, An Honest Account

by Valentine Ackland

Valentine Ackland, writer and poet, was for 40 years the closest companion of Sylvia Townsend Warner, for whom she wrote this autobiographical essay. It tells of her childhood, life in London in the 1920s, lesbian relationships, a hopeless marriage and her fight against alcoholism.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Lesbian, Queer, LGBT, Biography Memoir

Paperback

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Valentine Ackland was born in 1906. Her childhood embraced extremes of privilege and abuse within a wealthy but unhappy family; at nineteen she made a disastrous marriage which lasted less than six months. As a young woman she became notorious for cross-dressing and wild living, but she was also a dedicated poet. She first began writing poems at Chaldon in Dorset, the artists' colony begun by TF Powys, where in 1930 she fell in love with Sylvia Townsend Warner. The two writers lived together in Dorset, and in 1934 they jointly published the erotic and celebratory poetry collection Whether a Dove or a Seagull. They volunteered for the Red Cross during the Spanish Civil War, and were both committed Communists, for a time under surveillance by M15. At the outbreak of the Second World War Ackland moved with Warner to FromeVauchurch, inland from Chaldon, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

Reviews

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published posthumously, it's questionable whether Ackland really intended anyone other than her partner, Sylvia Townsend Warner, to read this. In some ways this account reminds me of Vita Sackville-West's account of her relationship with Violet Trefusis, which was also published posthumously. Both accounts discuss early childhood in detail, and go on to explore a turbulent lesbian relationship, and both feel incomplete, as though the writer began with a careful plan, and found she couldn't complete the work. Ackland was born in 1906, and realised she was attracted to women at the age of 16, when she began an affair with a girl of her own age when they were in France together. For some years, Ackland attempted to have relationships with men, eventually marrying one in order to get away from her mother, but she was primarily attracted to women, and could never feel comfortable with men. This account captures her teens, particularly her agony over her forced separation from her first girlfriend, and her desperate shyness. Ackland became an alcoholic when very young, depending on alcohol to escape her desperate shyness. Her treatment by doctors -- who were utterly paronising and completely dismissive -- was deplorable, and it's amazing that she ever managed to recover. Surprisingly, this account doesn't focus very much on Sylvia Townsend Warner, though it is addressed to her, and this is one of the ways in which it falters. We never really understand what makes Sylvia and Valentine work as a couple, or what keeps them together. The final chapter feels vague and uncertain after a promising start. This account feels unfinished, and but it's interesting, and gives insight into queer relationships of the 1920s and 30s.

[Felicity · Rating 2 out of 5]

My consuming interest in Sylvia Townsend Warner overcame initial resistance to reading a personal history that may not have been written with a view to publication. Does this document really belong in the public domain? Does academic interest disguise or transform prurience? Whether or not my conscience was assuaged, my response proved not so much disinterested as deeply uninterested in Ackland's poor-little-rich-girl 'honest', i.e. self-justifying, account of her allegedly deprived life before meeting Sylvia. Was she really so blissfully ignorant of the privations endured by contemporary working women? There are more things on heaven and earth, Valentine, than are dreamt of in your solipsistic philosophy. After reading this confessional, severely testing the limits of tolerance, I shall now have to address my own prejudicial response to the author's genuinely creative writing.

[Cera · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting memoir by an mid-20th century English poet whom I knew nothing about. I felt very, very much sympathy for the author, who had struggles with her sexuality and with alcohol, eventually finding a safe harbour with Sylvia Townsend Warner.