Violet Trefusis

Who was Violet Trefusis?

Violet Trefusis was an English writer and socialite. She is chiefly remembered for her lesbian affair with the poet Vita Sackville-West. She also wrote novels and many non-fiction works, both in English and French. The affair was featured in novels by both parties, and also in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography, as well as in many letters and memoirs of the period, roughly 1912–1922. Many are preserved at Yale University Library. Trefusis was an inspiration to many writers' fiction and was a pivotal character in their novels including Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate as "Lady Montdore" and in Harold Acton's The Soul's Gymnasium as "Muriel", a fictional portrait of her.