Even before Romeo and Juliet, literature has struggled to illustrate the difference between love and infatuation.

Nigel Nicholson has another stab in his contribution to this book. The first section is the autobiography of his mother Vita Sackville-West and her passionate lesbian love for Violet Trefusis, the second section is his commentary on it and on her long marriage to his father Harold Nicholson. He argues that his parents loved each other and that their unorthodox Bloomsbury-style marriage succeeded beyond their dreams.