The marriage was that between the two writers Vita Sackville-West & Harold Nicolson & the portrait is drawn partly by Vita herself in an autobiography which she left behind at her death in 1962 & partly by her son Nigel. It was one of the happiest & strangest marriages there has ever been. Both Vita & Harold were always in love with other people & each gave the other full liberty 'without enquiry or reproach' knowing that their love for each other would be unaffected & even strengthened by the crises which it survived. This account of their love story is now a modern classic.