Carrington's beguiling letters take us beyond the Bloomsbury group to discuss sexual mores, how to be an artist, and what it is to be truly oneself. Known only by her surname, Dora Carrington was the star of her year at the Slade School of Fine Art, and was friends with some of the greatest minds of her day, including Virginia Woolf, Rosamund Lehmann and Maynard Keynes. For over a decade she was the companion of homosexual writer Lytton Strachey, and - stricken without him- killed herself when he died in 1932. Though she never achieved the fame her early career promised, in her determination to live life according to her own nature – especially in relation to her work and her fluid attitude to sex, gender and sexuality – she fought battles that remain familiar and urgent today. Now, through her passionate, playful and honest letters, we can encounter the maverick artist and compelling personality afresh and in her own words.

Carrington's beguiling letters take us beyond the Bloomsbury group to discuss sexual mores, how to be an artist, and what it is to be truly oneself. Known only by her surname, Dora Carrington was the star of her year at the Slade School of Fine Art, and was friends with some of the greatest minds of her day, including Virginia Woolf, Rosamund Lehmann and Maynard Keynes. For over a decade she was the companion of homosexual writer Lytton Strachey, and - stricken without him- killed herself when he died in 1932. Though she never achieved the fame her early career promised, in her determination to live life according to her own nature – especially in relation to her work and her fluid attitude to sex, gender and sexuality – she fought battles that remain familiar and urgent today. Now, through her passionate, playful and honest letters, we can encounter the maverick artist and compelling personality afresh and in her own words.

Treasure hunting heroes Peter Fallon and Evangeline Carrington return in the "New York Times"-bestselling series.

Dora Carrington was considered an outsider to Bloomsbury, but she lived right at its heart. For over a decade she was the companion of gay writer Lytton Strachey, and killed herself, stricken without him, when he died in 1932. She was also a prolific and exuberant correspondent. Carrington was not consciously a pioneer or a feminist, but in her determination to live life according to her own nature, she fought battles that remain familiar and urgent today. She was friends with the greatest minds of the day and her correspondence stars a roster of fascinating characters - Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Rosamund Lehmann, Maynard Keynes to name but a few. 'Carrington's Letters' introduces the maverick artist and electric personality to a new generation with exclusive correspondence never before published.

Wyndham Lewis portrayed her as a tiny sex therapist, D. H. Lawrence as a frivolous artist's model and, elsewhere, as a gang-raped aesthete, and Aldous Huxley as jargon-speaking ultra-modern girl. Because of her Bohemian lifestyle, connection with the Bloomsbury group, her bobbed hair and outspoken views, painter Dora Carrington seems to symbolize the 'new' woman of the early 20th century. But the reality is more complex than that. While sexuality, infidelity and modernity were undeniably aspects of her personality, they were equally balanced by a loathing of her own femaleness, a devotion for 17 years with one man - albeit the homosexual Lytton Strachey, and respect for many aspects of traditional English life. Here is a vivid and compelling portrait of a remarkable woman -described by Lady Ottoline Morrell as 'a strange wild beast'.

Dora Carrington's association with Lytton Strachey and his Bloomsbury friends has tended to overshadow her contribution to modern painting. By looking at the art she produced in each period of her life, Hill redresses the balance, revealing Carrington as a significant artist of her time. The official tie-in to the major motion picture, starring Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce. 139 illustrations, 24 in color.