I love the review, Ruth! But think I'll skip the book...

Here's the review I posted under the book:

I used to want to be reincarnated as part of the Bloomsbury Group. I've read a lot of books by and about them. They seemed such a free and fascinating lot. If half of what Painted Shadow says is true, I am forever disabused of that idea. Nasty, back-biting crew.

There are some writers who cannot bear to omit a single bit of the research they've done. Seymour-Jones appears to be one of these. I learned way more than I wanted to know about everyone and everything surrounding Vivienne Eliot. Sometimes I wondered if this wasn't really a bio of TS Eliot. Yes, yes, I know any bio of Viv has to include Tom, but this much?

Viv appears to have been nuttier than Planters, and Tom ran a close second. Neither of them comes off as anyone you'd like to live next door to.