Two full-cast dramatisations of Vita Sackville-West’s most powerful novels

Listen now to an absolute archive gem, bringing you two stunning dramatisation of Vita Sackville-West’s writing and exclusive, bonus content.

Vita Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as well as a prolific letter writer and diarist. She was part of the infamous ‘Bloomsbury Group’ and her relationship with her friend and lover, modernist writer Virgina Woolf, heavily influenced her work. Sackville-West published more than a dozen collections of poetry and many novels during her life. She was twice awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Imaginative Literature and was the inspiration for the protagonist of Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf.

All Passion Spent was first published in 1931, and tells the story of Lady Slane, an 88-year old widow, who defies her children and embarks on an independent life after her husband dies. Becoming friends with two eccentric retirees in Hampstead, her new life is interrupted when she is visited by a figure from her past. Memories force her to take stock of her own life and when unexpected inheritance creates further tensions with her outraged family, a stranger might be the only thing between despair and hope for the future… Starring Honor Blackman as Lady Slane.

In No Signposts in the Sea listen to the story of Edmund Carr. An eminent journalist working in Fleet Street, he learns that he has only a short time to live. He decides to give up work and embark on a cruise, lured by the promise of exotic travels and the knowledge that a woman he has always admired is also a passenger. Out on the ocean, Carr is forced to confront his past and consider what it is he really values in the life he has left. Starring Ronald Pickup.

This exclusive collection comes with additional bonus material, in Walking Through Leaves, recorded in 1950, Sackville-West shares her simple pleasures in life. She recounts family stories, revels in the joy of smooth-running drawers and the action of a quality corkscrew. This is a rare opportunity to hear the voice and thoughts behind the iconic works.

This stunning collection is a must for any fans of Sackville-West and her Bloomsbury Group contemporaries.

Cast and credits

All Passion Spent

Written by Vita Sackville West

Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway

Directed by Sara Davies

Lady Slane ...... Honor Blackman
Mr FitzGeorge ...... Alec McCowen
Herbert Holland ...... John Nicholas
Carrie ...... Phyllida Nash
Kay Holland ...... Patrick Romer
Mr Bucktrout ...... Paul Nicholson
Mr Gosheron ...... Peter Ellis
Genoux ...... Sonia Elliman
Police Inspector ...... Russell Boulter
Deborah Holland ...... Annabel Scholey

First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, 19th - 23rd January 2009

No Signposts in the Sea

Written by Vita Sackville West

Adapted by Jill Hyem

Directed by Cherry Cookson

Edmund - Ronald Pickup
Laura - Kate Buffery
Colonel Dalrymple - Geoffrey Whitehead
Miss Cocoran - Frances Jeater
Steward - Harry Myers

First Broadcast BBC Radio 4, October 1998

Personal Pleasures - Walking Through Leaves

First Broadcast BBC Home Service, February 1950

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