Love Letters: Leonard Woolf & Trekkie Ritchie Parsons 1941-1968

by Leonard Woolf, Trekkie Ritchie Parsons

Trekkie Ritchie Parsons, a painter and book illustrator, was married to the publisher Ian Parsons. When she met and fell in love with Leonard Woolf, rather than splitting with Ian, convinced both men that life would be best if Leonard moved in next door. Trekkie spent the weekends with Ian and the week with Leonard, living this way for 25 years. When Trekkie and Leonard were not together they talked through quick letters, which she then sealed up, and were opened after her death. Linked by excerpts from her diary, the letters shine with details of daily life and tell the story of two contrasting personalities, their love for one another, and their unusual and creative domestic arrangement.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Leonard Sidney Woolf was a noted British political theorist, author, publisher (The Hogarth Press), and civil servant, but perhaps best-known as husband to author Virginia Woolf.

Reviews

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leonard Woolf, Bloomsbury publisher and long-suffering widower of Virginia Woolf, falls in love after his wife's suicide with Trekkie Ritchie Parsons, an emancipated and opinionated married woman. The affair lasts decades. Who knew that Woolf was such a good writer, and such an inventive and creative lover? His love letters to Ritchie Parsons are memorably lovely. Worth reading.