Bibliography - Charleston, near Firle, East Sussex
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Charlston, by Mark Antony Lower, M.A., published 1870 in A Compendious History of Sussex, Topographical, Archaeological & Anecdotal (vol. I, p.99, Lewes: George P. Bacon) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8946][Lib 3314] & The Keep [LIB/500159]   View Online

Charlston Manor House , by Walter H. Godfrey, published May 1932 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. IV no. 3, article, pp.33-39) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2203][Lib 8222][Lib 8861] & The Keep [LIB/500206] & S.A.S. library

An Agricultural Settlement on Charleston Brow, near Firle Beacon, by W. J. Parsons and Cecil Curwen, M.A., M.B., F.S.A., published 1933 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 74, article, pp.164-180) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 2159] & The Keep [LIB/500355] & S.A.S. library

Charleston Bridge, by Richard Gilbert, published May 1966 in Sussex Notes & Queries (vol. XVI no. 7, note, p.247) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 8234] & The Keep [LIB/500218] & S.A.S. library

Clive Bell at Charleston: paintings by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Quentin Bell, Roger Fry, Angelica Garnett., published 1972 (12 pp.) accessible at: British Library

Catalogue of an exhibition at Gallery Edward Harvane, May 24th - June 30th 1972.

Bloomsbury Portraits, by Richard Shone, published 1976 (London: Phaidon Press, ISBN-10: 0714816280 & ISBN-13: 9780714816289) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

Few groups of artists and writers have been the object of as much study as the Bloomsbury group. This book, originally published in 1976, was the first to look at the contribution of the painters of the group, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Duncan Grant (1885-1978), not only within the context of Bloomsbury but also from the wider perspective of modern British art. In a vivid narrative, Richard Shone weaves together the artists' private lives and professional careers during the first decades of this century. He illuminates their friendships within Bloomsbury, notably with the critic and painter Roger Fry, with Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Maynard Keynes and Lady Ottoline Morrell, and in the world of painting with figures such as Picasso, Derain and Sickert. Chapters are devoted to the artists' early careers, to the advent of the Omega Workshops, the artists' discovery of Charleston (their home in Sussex) and their work as decorative designers between the two World Wars.Bloomsbury Portraits, which received wide acclaim on first publication, has long been out of print. This edition has been revised throughout, and incorporates new information and over 80 colour illustrations. Much of the vividness of the book and its authentic evocation of the Bloomsbury artists' lives and times comes from Shone's first-hand experience of Charleston and his friendship with Duncan Grant in the last years of the painter's life.

Charleston Manor, Sussex, by Marcus Binney, published 5 August 1976 in Country Life (vol. 160 no. 4127, article, pp.350-353) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/502619]

A last outpost of Bloomsbury: why save Charleston? , by Christopher Neve, published 29 November 1979 in Country Life (vol. 166 no. 4299, article, pp.1994-1997)

Charleston, Sussex, by Quentin Bell, published c.1980 (12 pp., London: Hogarth Press) accessible at: British Library

New hope for Charleston, by Country Life contributor(s), published 14 May 1981 in Country Life (vol. 169 no. 4369, article, p.1346)

Bloomsbury, by Quentin Bell, published 27 March 1986 (2nd revised edition, 128 pp., Weidenfeld & Nicholson, ISBN-10: 0297788264 & ISBN-13: 9780297788263) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/508920]

Art unfettered: Charleston restored, by Peter Forbes, published 28 August 1986 in Country Life (vol. 180 no. 4645, article, pp.609-611)

Art and laughter, by Stephen Jones, published 19 April 1990 in Country Life (vol. 184 no. 16, article, pp.152-153)

The Art of Duncan Grant, by Simon Watney, published May 1991 (160 pp., John Murray Publishers Ltd, ISBN-10: 0719546419 & ISBN-13: 9780719546419) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Popularly associated with the Bloomsbury Group, Duncan Grant also played a leading role in the establishment of modernist art in Britain. As well as easel painting and murals, he did fabric design, theatre and ballet work, illustration and print-making, and commercial interior decoration. Throughout a long life Duncan Grant continued to experiment with and adapt to new styles and techniques, and this book offers an opportunity to grasp the extent of his achievement. It examines the influence that people and places had on him and demonstrates, with more than a hundred illustrations of his work, the range of his talent.

Bloomsbury Needlepoint: From the Tapestries at Charleston Farmhouse , by Melinda Coss, published 17 September 1992 (120 pp., Ebury Press, ISBN-10: 0091770351 & ISBN-13: 9780091770358) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant presided over the decoration of Charleston in a style which still exerts an influence on interior decoration. Needlepoint was favoured both as a pastime and as a key decorative element and this book includes designs for cushions, rugs, chairseats, hangings, firescreens, a Charleston blotter and Virginia Woolf's glasses case. Stitch-by-stitch colour charts, yarn information and detailed instructions make it easy to recreate the spontaneity of the original tapestries and designs, and suggestions for alternative colourways are also given. Some of the designs are based on the murals and paintings rather than the tapestries and Melinda Cross takes a look at the recurring motifs of boats, shells, flowers and cherubs, many inspired by Charleston and its seaside location. Kits are also available of all the designs.

Bloomsbury Portraits, by Richard Shone, published 1993 (272 pp. + 187 illus, London: Phaidon Press, ISBN-10: 0714829617 & ISBN-13: 9780714829616) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

This book, originally published in 1976, was the first to look at the contribution of the painters of the group, Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Duncan Grant (1885-1978), not only within the context of Bloomsbury but also from the wider persepctive of Modern British art. In a vivid narrative, Richard Shone weaves together the artists' private lives and professional careers during the first decades of this century. He illuminates their friendships within Bloomsbury, and in the world of painting. [This book] has long been out of print. This new edition has been revised throughout, and incorporates new information and over 80 colour illustrations. Much of the vividness of the book and its authentic evocation of the Bloomsbury artists' lives and times comes from Shone's first-hand experience of Charleston (where some of the book was written) and his friendship with Duncan Grant in the last years of the painter's life.

Deceived With Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood , by Angelica Garnett, published 2 March 1995 (192 pp., London: Chatto & Windus, ISBN-10: 0701128216 & ISBN-13: 9780701128210) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Angelica Garnett may truly be called a child of Bloomsbury. Her Aunt was Virginia Woolf, her mother Vanessa Bell, and her father Duncan Grant, though for many years Angelica believed herself, naturally enough, the daughter of Vanessa's husband Clive.
Her childhood homes, Charleston in Sussex and Gordon Square in London, were both centres of Bloomsbury activity, and she grew up surrounded by the most talked-about writers and artists of the day - Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry, the Stracheys, Maynard Keynes, David Garnett (whom she later married), and many others.
But Deceived with Kindness is also a record of a young girl's particular struggle to achieve independence from that extraordinary and intense milieu as a mature and independent woman. With an honesty that is by degrees agonising and uplifting, the author creates a vibrant, poignant picture of her mother, Vanessa Bell, of her own emergent individuality, and of the Bloomsbury era.

The Bloomsbury Trail in Sussex, by Judy Moore, published 12 June 1995 (96 pp., Seaford: S. B. Publications, ISBN-10: 1857700783 & ISBN-13: 9781857700787) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The Bloomsbury Group in Sussex - here are the homes where they lived, loved and worked, where they experienced great joys and crushing tragedies. This book looks at the everyday country lives of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Vanessa and Clive Bell, Duncan Grant, Maynard Keynes and the coterie of extraordinary writers and artists who surrounded them.
The author, Judy Moore lives in Lewes and is a journalist by profession. She has written many local interest books and now retired, still is involved with The Sussex Book Club.

Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Gardens, by Quentin Bell and Virginia Nicholson, published 30 October 1997 (160 pp., Frances Lincoln, ISBN-10: 0711211337 & ISBN-13: 9780711211339) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

This volume encapsulates the artistic sensibility and casual sophistication of the Bloomsbury Group. In 1916, Virginia Woolf wrote to her sister, Vanessa Bell, that though the farmhouse at Charleston in Sussex was primitive, "you could make it lovely." Six months later, Bell moved in and, treating the house as a blank canvas, went on to create a treasury of Bloomsbury art. As the best remaining example of the decorative style of Duncan Grant and Vanessa bell, Charleston presents the visitor with insights into the art of the Bloomsbury Group. The book provides family memories and anecdotes drawn from a lifetime's experience of Charleston. Each room links the interiors with some of the leading cultural figures of the 20th century, guests such as Vanessa's sister Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey. Specially commissioned photographs portray the esence of the Bloomsbury style both throughout the house, with its painted furniture and walls, decorative items and paintings and in the garden.

Charleston: A voice in the house, by Kathryn N. Benzel, published 1 January 1998 (64 pp., London: Cecil Woolf, ISBN-10: 1897967020 & ISBN-13: 9781897967027) accessible at: British Library

Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, by Virginia Nicholson, published 27 November 2003 (400 pp., London: Penguin, ISBN-10: 014028978X & ISBN-13: 9780140289787) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

Virginia Nicholson's Among the Bohemians is a portrait of England's artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century, engaged in a grand experiment.
Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant - the Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they painted and danced and didn't care what people thought. They sent their children to co-ed schools; explored homosexuality and Free Love. They were often drunk, broke and hungry but they were rebels.
In this fascinating book Virginia Nicholson examines the way the Bohemians refashioned the way we live our lives.

Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Gardens, by Quentin Bell and Virginia Nicholson, published 1 May 2004 (reprint, 160 pp., Frances Lincoln, ISBN-10: 071122370X & ISBN-13: 9780711223707) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries

Set in the heart of the Sussex Downs, Charleston Farmhouse is the most important remaining example of Bloomsbury decorative style, created by the painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Quentin Bell, the younger son of Clive and Vanessa Bell, and his daughter Virghinia Nicholson, tell the story of this unique house, linking it with some of the leading cultural figures who were invited there, including Vanessa's sister Virginia Woolf, the writer Lytton Strachey, the economist Maynard Keynes and the art critic Roger Fry. The house and garden are portrayed through Alen MacWeeney's atmostpheric photographs; pictures from Vanessa Bell's family album convey the flavour of the household in its heyday.

Trespassing Boundaries: Virginia Woolf's Short Fiction, edited by Kathryn N. Benzel and Ruth Hoberman, published 17 December 2004 (256 pp., Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN-10: 1403964831 & ISBN-13: 9781403964830)

In Trespassing Boundaries, ten contemporary Woolf scholars discuss a broad range of Woolf's short stories. Despite being now easily available these stories have not yet received the attention they deserve. Complex yet involving, they deserve to be read not only for the light they shed on the novels, but in their own right, as major contributions to the short fiction as a genre. This volume places Woolf's short stories in the context of modernist experimentalism, then explores them as ambitious attempts to challenge generic boundaries, undercutting traditional distinctions between short fiction and the novel, between experimental and popular fiction, between fiction and nonfiction. Collectively the essays suggest that Woolf's contribution to the short story is as important as her contribution to the novel.

Bloomsbury in Sussex, by Simon Watney, published 2007 (96 pp., Snake River Press, ISBN-10: 1906022054 & ISBN-13: 9781906022051) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Charleston Farm, by Annette Rose, published March 2008 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 18 no. 1, article, pp.18-21) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508968] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.

Nowadays Charleston Farm at West Firle is run by the Charleston Trust, part of the Bloomsbury Group and is open to the public. The artists Vanessa BELL and Duncan GRANT became tenants here in 1916 and it was also a gathering place for such writers as Leonard and Virginia WOOLF. Many years before this, however, my MARTEN ancestors were in residence.

Charleston Saved 1979-1989, by Anthea Arnold, published 30 June 2010 (144 pp., London: Robert Hale, ISBN-10: 0709090188 & ISBN-13: 9780709090182) accessible at: British Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Charleston Saved 1979-1989 tells the story of what was described at the time as "one of the most difficult and imaginative feats of restoration current in Britain." When Duncan Grant died in 1978, the house he and Vanessa Bell had rented since 1916 was in a very dilapidated state. All the designs and decorations they had created over the years were still there: the wall surfaces, the furniture, the wood panels, the ceramics, the fabrics, the paintings, and, of course, the garden. But damp, dirt, and neglect had reduced them all to a wretched state. This book describes how Deborah Gage, a young woman of 29, succeeded in raising the money and masterminded the whole operation. It also gives graphic descriptions of the conservation of every part of the house, its contents, and the garden. When it was completed the people involved wrote accounts of what they had done and their words have been used to complete the story of how the house was saved and opened to the public in 1986.

The politics of partnership: Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, 1912-1961, by Darren Clarke, 2013 at Sussex University (Ph.D thesis)   View Online

This thesis analyses the relationship of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, artists that were central to the visual culture of the Bloomsbury group. The title of this project positions 'partnership' as a connecting force between the two artists, a term I interpret as a series of layers, boundaries, and thresholds that are in a constant state of flux, over-lapping, layering and leaking. By mapping the artists' presence I am able to construct a new model of partnership. Chapter one considers the artists' signing and marking of their work, examining the variations of the signature, tracing its evolution, its presence and its absence, its location on the work and the calligraphy of the mark. By examining the various ways that Bell and Grant had of signing and of not signing their work and the use and function of the mechanically reproduced signature, I demonstrate the uneasy relationship that can occur between objects, names and signatures. Chapter two focuses on the pond at Charleston, the home that the artists shared for almost half a century, which is central to many of the narratives and mythologies of the household and is the subject of many paintings and decorations. I chart how the artists map this space by repeatedly recording it and how the pond acts as a layered topography for the exploration and presentation of gender, queerness and familial relationships. Chapter three continues the process of examining boundaries and layers by exploring the artists' often problematic relationship to clothes and to the delicate threshold between fabric and skin that often loosens and gapes. I cast the artists as agents of disguise and masquerade in which uncertain and unstable boundaries are created. I map the transference of fabric and demonstrate how this textile threshold ruptures, how the body leaks, leaving marks and traces.

The Angel of Charleston: Grace Higgens, Housekeeper to the Bloomsbury Group, by Stewart MacKay, published 3 October 2013 (vi + 153 pp., The British Library Publishing Division, ISBN-10: 0712358676 & ISBN-13: 9780712358675) accessible at: British Library & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

Grace Higgens (1903-1983), described by Duncan Grant as 'the angel of Charleston', arrived at the Gordon Square house of Vanessa Bell in June 1920. She was to remain with the family for fifty years as housemaid, nurse, cook and finally housekeeper at Charleston, the country house in Sussex where the Bell family spent their holidays during the interwar period and then lived permanently until the 1970s. This book tells Grace's story for the first time and is based on her diaries and correspondence. Grace was high-spirited with a robust sense of fun; she read all she could and often sat for her painter employers, who much admired her looks. Her numerous diaries recount her years in Gordon Square, Charleston and the South of France and their vivid picture of life with the Bells and their friends complement what we know of the 'above stairs' world of the Bloomsbury set. With great humour, Grace describes the varied denizens of Charleston, such as Duncan Grant, Lydia Lopokova, Roger Fry, E. M. Forster and, of course, Virginia Woolf: 'I met Mr and Mrs Leonard Woolf, riding on their bicycles to Charleston. They looked absolute freaks.' There are moving entries about the death of Vanessa Bell in 1961, and of Grace's final years at Charleston looking after the elderly Duncan Grant. This charming book describes a little-known side of the Bloomsbury world and illuminates a lost era of domestic service.