Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" at Gunby Hall

Virginia Woolf’s use of members of her own family and close friends as models for her characters is well known. Her father, that eminent of all eminent Victorians, Sir Leslie Stephen was the curmudgeonly Mr Ramsay in To The Lighthouse and her mother, the beautiful Julia Jackson, is sensitively portrayed as his long-suffering wife. Other characters in the novel are drawn from friends who were invited to stay with the family at Talland House where the Stephen family spent their summer holidays. One of those families was that of the lawyer and positivist, Vernon Lushington whose daughter Kitty married newspaper owner Leopold Maxse and became the model for Mrs Dalloway in Woolf’s iconic novel which celebrates the centenary of its publication this year. Kitty’s sister Margaret married Stephen Massingberd of Gunby Hall. Kitty, together with other members of her family, was a frequent visitor to Gunby and, following her tragic death in 1922, she was buried in the churchyard at Gunby Hall.

Dr David Taylor, MA, FSA Dr Taylor is an historian, writer and lecturer. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Chairman of the Surrey History Trust. He is the author of “The Remarkable Lushington Family. Reformers, Pre-Raphaelites, Positivists, and the Bloomsbury Group” and has lectured extensively on aspects of the Lushington family and their circle both in this country and the USA.

The talk starts at 6.30pm and includes an interval (Refreshments included in price).