Leonard Woolf - On the Formation of the Bloomsbury Group and on Virginia Woolf

In this audio recording, Leonard Woolf reflects on the formation of the Bloomsbury Group - the various members and their backgrounds, their interests and what brought them together.
He then talks about Virginia Woolf - their relationship, her character and her worth as a novelist.
Enjoy!

[@carolking6355]

I watched this years ago and it still brings tears to my eyes. What a privilege to see and hear Leonard Woolf. My cousin was in that group . Walter Darcy Cresswell a poet lived in that group. He sold his poems on a sheet of paper for a penny and worked as a night watchman to live. My parents loved him but his parents disowned him. All the Cresswell letters are in the Canterbury University in Christchurch. They were a loving family but I think D’Arcy was gay and back then some people couldn’t manage it. Douglas Cresswell whom I met shows this in in his letters. The Cresswell’s were interesting so many looked liked twins. My Da d and Douglas plus William all looked the same and several I interviewed were so like my Dad. I am just sad none of my children have that likeness. I have some wonderful photo albums from c1900 just don’t know where to leave them as I am old.

[@divaden47]

Ask the Canterbury University. They may like them, or maybe a museum specialising in the Bloomsbury Group.

[@bealreadyhappy]

Have you done anything about the photos?

[@avawest3833]

Nice plug for your cousin and family, but wrong forum.

[@raolhooley]

Shame he was such a bogus scumbag re hounding,and trying to blackmail the homosexual mayor of Wanganui into resigning,it is said acting for others who disliked him as a progressive all the while being homosexual himself.this effectively ruined the life of this poor man.cresswell then happily goes on to marry in order to hide the fact..it only lasted a year..in addition his poetry is not regarded as having any lasting merit..hardly a member of the Bloomsbury group and hardly someone to admire whatever the era..sorry but you omit those pertinent facts in your little history of your nasty relative.

[@jazminebellx11]

This makes my heart sing. Thank you so much. Can never get enough of the Bloomsbury Group.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

nor do I!

[@kikcta]

bravo! please more videos about Bloomsbury!

[@JohnRaymondHall]

will do - there are quite a lot of audios about - and film of Lytton Stratchy, sadly with no audio

[@simaraft7373]

A miraculous moment in history, Bloomsbury.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

i'd like a time machine and be at one of their dinner parties - but would be wildly outclassed as a conversationalist

[@simaraft7373]

@@JohnRaymondHall I know! We’d just have to sit there and try to follow their hyper intellectual exchanges!

[@SamSam-nw1mr]

I’m reading his book “ The village in the Jungle “ right now

[@danthikalumbiniwijayasunda45]

It is about my country, sri lanka.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

are you enjoying the book?

[@mohangamlath5510]

He was in Sri Lanka and wrote a novel on our country side " Village in the Jungle " it's an amazing book with real bitter truth. Astonishment is how as an administrative officer he understood that situation in rural Sri Lankan village.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

yes, amazing he understood the context, coming from one so different

[@mohangamlath5510]

@@JohnRaymondHall But as our historians says he's a very tough administrative officer those days. Even he's attacked by villagers once. I think he's honest with his job. Or his toughness lead Virginia's death. Anyway I like him because he reavealed the dark side of our innocent villages. You know there is a movie based on the book and Dr.Arthur C. Clerk played the Leonard's character.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

@@mohangamlath5510now, one needs to re-visit perceptions of post-colonial history and this of course includes Leonard Woolf

[@aryehfinklestein9041]

A precious item from the archives - thankyou.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

pleasure - surprising how many audios exist of central Blommsbury Group members - and footage of people like Lytton Strachey

[@aryehfinklestein9041]

Thanks again....and as a Lytton Strachey fan, I especially agree.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

i'm a big fan too - the little bit of footage really gives a sense of him - pity with so many others audio recorded he was not (as far as we know). i greatly admired his new take on the Eminent Victorians. i like E M Forster's insights into the process of writing in my upload 'E M Forster Talks About Writing Novels - 'Only Connect' kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJK1fpl3rpZnoLs - one of the most important understands i has about novel writing was his 'Aspects of a Novel', the book based on a lecture series

[@ZenGrammy]

Wonderful! Thank you. 🌹

[@JohnRaymondHall]

pleasure - it's interesting to read what Woolf had to say about Bloomsbury but in an audio you get so much more than is on the page - interpersonal meanings, nuances ... :)

[@karamriadh6325]

" She was interested, in fact, in everything".

[@JohnRaymondHall]

indeed

[@abhayabinduhewa9095]

Leopard Wolf is a name that will be remembered in Sri Lanka with the book "Village in the Jungle ". It has been translated in to the Sinhalese language . And he is remembered as a man with compassion rather than a strict administrator .

[@JohnRaymondHall]

well said! :)

[@Cr8ive453]

3 years ago I visited Monk’s House for the first time then went for a walk across the South Downs, searching for the river, when I bumped into an old man walking his dog, after asking him for directions I asked if he had met Virginia, he said no, but he had met Leonard who was “very generous to the community”.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

nice to hear that about Leonard - thanks for sharing

[@felixdevilliers1]

Thanks for that look into the lives of Virginia Woolf and her husband. I am a fan of Ronald Firbank's and find that his poetic language crystallises more precisely than that of Woolf or D.H.Lawrence, let alone E.M. Forster who was outrageously condescending about him.

[@felixdevilliers1]

I have Woolf's essays in The Common Reader which I enjoy very much, specially the one on Christina Rossetti who is underestimated.

[@user-op1oz8uh1g]

Спасибо ВАМ !!!

[@JohnRaymondHall]

удовольствие - я загружу еще немного - есть много чего

[@carolking6355]

Can I add another comment.acousin I don’t know wrote a book of letters called Dear Lady Ginger. It’s Brilliant. Between D’Arcy and Lady Ottiline Morrell of the Bloomsbury group.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

thanks - that's interesting to know

[@pilotstyle123]

Could you please tell me the source of this? I would like to cite it for my work.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

it comes from a DVD called 'The Spoken Word: The Bloomsbury Group (British Library - British Library Sound Archive)'

[@patriciamolliere2230]

I used to live at Garsington manor near Oxford.

[@marcellakillick5709]

When did this interview took place and what is the interviewer’s name?

[@JohnRaymondHall]

the recording is 1964 but i don't sadly know the interviewer’s name

[@omp199]

Saxon Sydney-Turner was the one name from the original set of 13 that I didn't recognise. Is that the same for anyone else? Has he been largely forgotten about, do you think?

[@omp199]

@@andyeasy3320 Thank you. I am interested in the group but would not call myself a "fan". Virginia Woolf in particular had some appalling views.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

yes, and curiously there is no recording of him speaking as there is of so many members of the group: Leonard Woolf, Virginia Woolf, E M Forster, Desmond MacCarthy, Duncan Grant, Clive Bell, Vanessa Bell, John Maynard Keynes, Harold Nicholson, William Plomer, David Garnett, David Cecil, Frances Partridge, Angelica Garnett, George Rylands, Marjorie Strachey, Vita Sackville-West, Quentin Bell, Marjorie Fry, Nigel Nicholson, Benedict Nicholson, Elizabeth Bowen, Ralph Partridge, John Lehmann, Bertrand Russell, Gerlad Brenan, Grace Higgins, Nellie Boxhall, Lottie Hope, Louie Mayer

[@bewareofpigeons]

There is a painting of Saxon Sydney-Turner playing the piano, cannot remember by whom - most likely Duncan Grant or Roger Fry.

[@EmmettHickey-eb1xf]

Does anyone know the year of this recording?

[@JohnRaymondHall]

sadly i have been unable to identify the date - i would guess early 1960s. he passes away in 1969.

[@sterlingwalter5971]

Leonard an ind Virginia despised each other in words and deeds.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

Tamara Dovgan - greetings from Sydney back to St Petersburg! great to have the connection with Lydia Lopokova (as i spell her name :) ) i had a connection to the Bloomsbury Group through a minor painter connected with it - Eve Disher - i posted a video here on her :)

[@smallbeginning2]

Hands up if Cain's Jawbone brought you here 🤚

[@nanaterri392]

I thought Dora Carrington was part of the group

[@anjo2932]

She was connected to them through Lynton S but I don't think she was part of the group as such. Don't forget most of the members of the Bloomsbury came from the Upper classes and she didn't. I could be wrong ofcourse, as it happened I found two books about Dora Carrington in a second hand bookstore last week but I haven't been able to read much yet. I like her work very much.

[@RB-xj9kr]

@@anjo2932 yes, she was

[@Rome274]

I thought she was too . She was friends with Lady Ottoline Morelle . (I'm sorry if I haven't spelt her name correctly.) Mark Gertler commented that he wasn't upper class like Dora Carrington..

[@sterlingwalter5971]

Gerald Brennan didn't think highly of the Blooms bury group, neither did Roger Poole. They were decided rationalists and not in the least poetic, according to my reading thus far.

[@JohnRaymondHall]

yes, i understand that about Gerald Brennan and Roger Poole - i must read more about their positions on Bloomsbury

[@sterlingwalter5971]

@@JohnRaymondHall they were total rationalists (Bloomsbury generally, Leonard specifically) and would never understand Virginia.