Written and performed for my show, ‘Love, Lust and Loathing in the Bloomsbury Literati’, during the Bloomsbury Festival

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Lytton and Virginia were literary lions.

They prowled around the Bloomsbury Set,

Vetting interlopers that they met,

Pronouncing them suitable…or maybe not yet.

 

Their writing set the world aflame.

Their Bohemian lifestyle banished shame.

They tipped convention on its head,

For a new life order…or so they said.

 

Who would have thought, that he and she,

Would strike up a friendship so immediately.

A connection that lasted the whole of their life

Closer than lover, husband or wife.

 

He tall and thin, wracked with crippling fear,

Terrified of intimacy…

Yet desperate to be near.

 

She of similar stature, tormented by self-doubt,

Wanting to be uninhibited…

Struggling to let it out.

 

Both driven by ambition and desire to be rich.

Both liked to gossip, ruminate and bitch,

Suffer romantic torment and unrequited love.

As long-suffering partners strove to rise above.

 

A monumental relationship,

Based on values both held dear.

A very English friendship,

Eccentric and Queer.