Inspired by the humorous family history of Woolf’s lover and friend, Vita Sackville-West, the eponymous Orlando is an immortal trans poet from the 16th century. Wining and dining with the literary greats to probe, pressure, and persuade the thinkers and feelers of each age, he abruptly turns into a woman at the ripe old age of 30. Again and again.
Crafting an irresistible guide of English literature in visual form, Orlando: A Biography’ remains a spearhead of gender and trans studies today, and is ideal for fans of Owen Wilson in ‘Midnight in Paris’.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), a hugely influential English writer and modernist, addressed themes from war and shellshock to the role of social class in British society in her writing. Translated into over 50 languages, Woolf’s breath-taking collection spans ‘The Waves’, ‘Mrs Dalloway’, ‘Orlando’, and ‘A Room of One’s Own’, and she remains today an original feminist and thinker of the late 19th century.
