Violet Trefusis was born on 6 June 1894, the elder daughter of Alice Keppel, a famously discreet mistress of the future Edward VII. 'I wonder if I shall ever squeeze as much romance into my life as she has had in hers,' Violet wrote in the summer of 1918 to Vita Sackville-West. She had begun to squeeze a very indiscreet romance with Vita into her own life. The girls' passion for each other was to be the subject of an early novel by Sackville-West called Challenge and secretly dedicated to Violet in Romany which in translation reads:

This book is yours, my witch. Read it and you will find your tormented soul, changed, and free.

LRB 11 February 2010 | PDF Download