Young Bloomsbury: the generation that reimagined love, freedom and self-expression

Surprisingly little has been written about second-generation Bloomsbury who tantalised the original 'Bloomsburies' at Gordon Square parties with their captivating looks and provocative ideas.

Young Bloomsbury introduces us to an extraordinarily colourful cast of characters, including novelist and music critic Eddy Sackville-West, 'who wore elaborate make-up and dressed in satin and black velvet'; sculptor Stephen Tomlin; and writer Julia Strachey. Talented and productive, these larger-than-life figures had high-achieving professional lives and extremely complicated emotional lives.

Bloomsbury had always celebrated sexual equality and freedom in private, but by the 1920s self-expression was becoming more public, with cross-dressing Young Bloomsbury giving Old Bloomsbury a new voice in a chosen family of a shared rebellion against pre-war conventions.

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