Pepita: A Biography of Victoria Sackville-West

309 pages. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "Victoria Josefa Dolores Catalina Sackville-West, Baroness Sackville (1862-1936) was the wife of her cousin Lionel Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville and the mother of writer and socialite Vita Sackville-West. She was the illegitimate daughter of the Lionel Sackville-West, 2nd Baron Sackville and the Spanish dancer Josefa de la Oliva (née Durán y Ortega, known as Pepita). Her life is mostly overshadowed by the high-profile and controversial lesbian lifestyle of her daughter, Vita, whose up and down and often volatile relationship with Violet Trefusis was the subject of gossip for several years. Vita Sackville-West, The Hon Lady Nicolson, CH (March 9, 1892 - June 2, 1962) was an English poet, novelist and gardener. Her long narrative poem, The Land, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927. She won it again, becoming the only writer to do so, in 1933 with her Collected Poems. She helped create her own gardens in Sissinghurst, Kent which provide the backdrop to Sissinghurst Castle. She was famous for her exuberant aristocratic life, her strong marriage, and her passionate affairs with women like novelist Virginia Woolf." -- Wikipedia