The muse of Virginia Woolf

Vita Sackville-West, was an English aristrocrat and writer of some repute. She was also the muse of Virginia Woolf, who based her novel Orlando completely on her. This was actually documented by Virginia Woolf in her diary:

And instantly the usual exciting devices enter my mind: a biography  beginning in the year 1500 and continuing to the present day, called  Orlando: Vita; only with a change about from one sex to the other

Vita Sackville-West was a part of the Bloomsbury group (which included Virginia Woolf and her husband) and was married to Harold Nicolson, a writer and a politician. They had an open marriage and both had several affairs with people of the same sex.

Although most know her primarily for her affair with Virginia Woolf, she was an accomplished writer in her own right and was even awarded the Companion of Honour for her services to literature. Her skill in writing is apparent in her passionate and beautifully written love letters to Virginia Woolf in one of which she claims:

I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia

As stated above, she served as a model for Woolf's novel Orlando which traced the life and love of the eponymous hero. Interestingly enough, although the character starts of as a man, at a certain juncture, Orlando turns into a woman with the same mind and intellect.

Despite Vita's various affairs and unusal lifestyle, she is reported to have had a close bond with her husband and her son actually defended her choices.