Blue Eyes and a Wild Spirit

An intimate portrait of Dorothy Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, lover of Vita Sackville-West and part of the Bloomsbury Set

Dorothy Wellesley was a poet, traveller, heiress and rebel. When she became the lover of Vita Sackville-West, it wrecked her marriage to the future Duke of Wellington. Through Vita, Dorothy met Virginia Woolf and gained a unique view of the iconic and intensely self-absorbed Bloomsbury Group. W.B. Yeats hailed her as one of the most talented poets of her generation. She was his intimate friend in his final years and his muse. Yet despite being a writer, editor and champion of poetry throughout her life, she ranks highly among the most overlooked women poets of the 20th century. This intimate biography draws on unpublished material, including private Wellesley family papers and hitherto unknown source material, to create a riveting story of love, secret friendships and betrayal. Unconventional, reckless and often vulnerable, Dorothy Wellesley was a woman ahead of her time.