Valentine Ackland

Valentine Ackland
Full length picture of a woman with short hair, standing outdoors and holding a shotgun
Ackland in 1930
Born
Mary Kathleen Macrory Ackland

(1906-05-20)20 May 1906[1]
54 Brook Street, London, England
Died9 November 1969(1969-11-09) (aged 63)
Maiden Newton, Dorset, England
Resting placeSt. Nicholas Churchyard, Chaldon Herring, Dorset, England
OccupationPoet
Political partyCommunist Party[1]
Liberal Party[1]
SpouseRichard Turpin (annulled)[1]
PartnerSylvia Townsend Warner (1931–1969)[1]

Valentine Ackland (born Mary Kathleen Macrory Ackland; 20 May 1906 – 9 November 1969) was an English poet, and life partner of novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner. Their relationship was strained by Ackland’s infidelities and alcoholism, but survived for nearly forty years. Both were closely involved with communism, remaining under continued scrutiny by the authorities. Ackland’s poetry did not become widely noticed until after her death, when her reflective, confessional style was more in vogue, and left-wing writers of the 1930s had become a popular topic.

  1. ^ a b c d e Brown, Susan, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy, eds. Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present], Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Online, 2006; accessed 27 November 2018.