User reviews

I recorded this mini series because being a fan of Woolf's writing and being interested in Keynes I was interested in the topic. I delayed watching it because of the potential for lascivious sexism and cliché I have observed in other artistic works regarding the Bloomsbury set.

I started watching it when I was ill and was gripped. I like the way the author focused on Vanessa Bell and the avoidance of sexist representations of the women, as is so often the case, especially where there is a break from accepted relationship convention.

I was so glad the author just introduced some characters by name and didn't over explain who everyone was and list their achievements. Unlike a previous reviewer I was glad the snobbishness and self importance and flaws of individuals was not written out.

I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of angelica's experience. This took the examination of the group far beyond previous works I have encountered, giving the story some real emotional meaning.

Over all this series seemed to me to be an exploration of relationships. It reminded me of Phillip Larkin's poem of parenthood.

This series is a remarkable portrait of the Bloomsbury group, and the large cast is universally excellent. The sexual radicalism of many of the characters is handled in a way that is very explicit but also sensitive. One imagines that some viewers would find some of the scenes shocking, especially those involving Duncan Grant's sexual relationships with other men.

But the writers and artists in the Bloomsbury group were all about disregarding the constricting social norms of early 20th century England, so it is appropriate that this series contains some graphic scenes and images.

The photography is very artistic and evocative, and it suggests Vanessa Bell's modernist perspective as an artist. Vanessa is at the heart of the drama, and her character is fully developed and very nuanced. Her love for the gay painter Duncan Grant, superbly played by James Norton, is perhaps the most poignant of all the romances that are shown here.

I wish more attention had been paid to Virginia Woolf who was, after all, the most significant and most brilliant of the Bloomsbury group. Her emergence as a novelist, the woman who became England's greatest novelist of her era, is glossed over. But the series is so unusually in its atmospheric depiction of the lives of these various free spirits that Virginia not getting enough attention can be forgiven.

I would definitely like to see more series about authors and artists whose lives defied social conventions.