Book description
The Second World War has been won. Germany has conquered Britain and
all of Europe, and now only America stands, protected for now by the
Pacific Charter - a precarious promise of peace from the Reich.
Lester Dale and Helen Temple, two strangers united by their memories of
a lost England, are staying in the Grand Canyon Hotel in Arizona amongst
a variety of displaced Europeans and naive American youths. When the
fragile peace eventually shatters, only Lester and Helen can take
charge, and lead their fellow guests into an uncertain future.
Filled with extraordinary characters and strange twists, Grand Canyon
, written during World War Two, is Vita Sackville-West’s unflinching
exploration of what might be, and a warning of the dangers of compromise
when world peace is at stake. The Hon. Lady Nicolson, Vita
Sackville-West, was an English poet, novelist and gardener. She was
famous for her exuberant aristocratic life, her strong marriage to
Harold Nicolson, her passionate relationships with women and her gardens
at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent.
Sackville-West's long narrative poem, The Land
, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927, and her Collected Poems won the
prize again in 1933. Her best-known novels are The Edwardians
(1930) and All Passion Spent
(1931). Both titles were reissued alongside her earlier novel, Challenge
(1923), by Virago in Spring 2011.
In 1946 Sackville-West was made a Companion of Honour for her services
to literature. The following year she began a weekly column in the
Observer called In your Garden
. In 1948 she became a founder member of the National Trust's garden
committee.
Sissinghurst Castle is now owned by the National Trust and the garden
Vita Sackville-West created there is open to the public. It is one of
the most visited gardens in England.
