A BOOK OF SECRETS by Michael Holroyd (non-fic)

How lovely on a perfectly dull and gray day to sit down in a comfy chair and begin a biography by Michael Holroyd.  He has written a number of great ones, among them:  Lytton Strachey, Augustus John, Bernard Shaw and three recent biographies which are on a more personal level as the author inserts himself into these stories. Such is the case with A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers. 

The catalyst in the book is the Villa Cimbrone a picturesque manor surrounded by beautiful gardens which sits on a high hill above Ravello in Italy.  The villa was owned by a late Victorian with the Dickensian name of Lord Grimthorpe.  The story begins with Eve Fairfax who was engaged to Grimthorpe and subsequently abandoned by him.  After he commissioned a bust of her by Auguste Rodin, she became a muse of the artist.  Eve, a lonely spinster living on the grace and generosity of others, reached the great age of 107.  It is possible that she conceived a child, which eventually leads us to Catherine Till who believes her father is Grimthorpe's son Ralph. 

All of the women in the book are connected in some way by chance or relation and all are connected with the Villa Cimbrone.  The most space is given to Violet Trefusis, the illegitimate daughter of Alice Keppel, a mistress of Edward VIII.  Violet who became a well-known author herself, carried on a torrid relationship with Vita Sacville-West which did not end well. 

Holroyd's interest was piqued during the 1970s when he happened by the bust of Eve Fairfax in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Thus he enters the story as he begins his research on Eve Fairfax which leads to his visits to the Villa Cimbrone with his wife, the author, Margaret Drabble. As the various characters, appear on Holroyd's stage, the tale begins to take on a Midsummer-Night's Dream quality.  Gore Vidal even makes an appearance as he owns a fabulous cliff-side home near by.

There is a helpful family tree at the back of the book, if the relationships of the various characters need further clarification.  The usual Victorian and Edwardian scandal keeps the book interesting to the very end.