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Lead book review

How country living changed the lives of three remarkable women writers

Harriet Baker describes how Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann found new forms of peace and creativity away from the stifling capital

30 March 2024

9:00 AM

30 March 2024

9:00 AM

Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann Harriet Baker

Allen Lane, pp.256, 25

Very fine hot day. (Bank Holiday). Sound of band in Lewes from the Downs. Guns heard at intervals. Walked up the down at the back. Got plenty of mushrooms. Butterflies in quantities. Ladies Bedstraw, Roundheaded Rampion, Thyme, Marjoram.

This isn’t what we expect from Virginia Woolf, known for her caustic investigations of friends and filigree portraits of her own inner life.

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