English aristocrat, writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West was BOTD in 1892. Born at Knole in Kent, her family’s ancestral home, she was the only child of the 3rd Baron Sackville, but as a female was unable to inherit his estate. She attended a girls’ day school in London, and became a prolific writer, completing eight (unpublished) novels in her teens. She married diplomat Harold Nicholson in 1913, with whom she had two sons. After various diplomatic residences in the Middle East, they settled at Long Barn in Kent. Though devoted to each other, they had an open relationship, pursuing same-sex affairs with others. The marriage was nearly destroyed by Sackville-West’s infatuation with her childhood friend and lover Violet Trefusis, with whom she tried to elope several times. In 1922, she had a relationship with writer Virginia Woolf, who used her as the basis for her 1928 novel Orlando, a picaresque about an aristocrat who lives for 400 years and changes gender. In 1930, Sackville-West and Nicholson moved to Sissinghurst Castle, a one-time home of the Sackvilles, complete with an Elizabethan tower that became her writing studio. Together, they created a famous garden, combining classical design with informal planting schemes and single colour-themed plots, opening it to the public in 1938. Sackville-West found success with books exploring her aristocratic lineage, including Heritage, The Land, The Edwardians, Family History and the epic poem Solitude. Her 1920 novel Challenge, portraying a heterosexual affair, was banned in Britain, though her similarly-themed 1931 novel All Passion Spent became a bestseller. Her memoir Portrait of a Marriage, unpublished in her lifetime, was a frank account of her marriage, her affair with Trefusis and an attempt to understand her bisexuality. Sackville-West and Nicholson remained married until her death in 1962, aged 70. In 1973, her son Nigel published Portrait of a Marriage, including his own reflections on his parents. A 1990 television series Portrait of a Marriage, based on Nicholson’s book and starring Janet McTeer as Sackville-West, became an international success, renewing interest in her life and work.