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Valentine Ackland
1906 - 1969 |
| Valentine Ackland was born
in London in 1906. Although her family was wealthy and educated she
had an unhappy childhood, deprived of real affection. Her first
poems were published in Modern
Anthology in 1923. She married Richard Turpin when she was nineteen,
but divorced six months later. She moved to Chaldon in Dorset where
she was able to live more freely and it was there that she met
Sylvia Townsend Warner. They lived together from 1930 until
Valentine’s death. Both Sylvia and Valentine became communists in
the 1930s and volunteered in the Red Cross during the Spanish Civil
War. After the Second World War, Valentine recovered from alcoholism
and ended a long-term love affair that had threatened her
relationship with Sylvia. However she returned to the Catholicism of
her youth – a decision Sylvia found very difficult. Valentine died
in 1969, aged sixty-three. With Sylvia she was the author of Whether a Dove or Seagull. The Nature of the Moment, Further Poems of Valentine Ackland and Sylvia: An Honest Account were all
published posthumously. |
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