Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars

<b>A <i>NEW YORK TIMES </i>EDITORS&rsquo; CHOICE &bull; LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE &bull; &ldquo;A beautiful and deeply moving book.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;Sally Rooney, author of <i>Normal People<br></i></b><br>An engrossing group portrait of five women writers, including Virginia Woolf, who moved to London&rsquo;s Mecklenburgh Square in search of new freedom in their lives and work.</b><br><br><b>NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY <i>POPMATTERS</i></b><br><br> <i>&ldquo;I like this London life . . . the street-sauntering and square-haunting.&rdquo;&mdash;Virginia Woolf, diary, 1925</i><br><br> In the early twentieth century, Mecklenburgh Square&mdash;a hidden architectural gem in the heart of London&mdash;was a radical address. On the outskirts of Bloomsbury known for the eponymous group who &ldquo;lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles,&rdquo; the square was home to students, struggling artists, and revolutionaries.<br><br> In the pivotal era between the two world wars, the lives of five remarkable women intertwined at this one address: modernist poet&#160;H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and author and publisher Virginia Woolf. In an era when women&rsquo;s freedoms were fast expanding, they each sought a space where they could live, love, and&mdash;above all&mdash;work independently.<br><br> With sparkling insight and a novelistic style, Francesca Wade sheds new light on a group of artists and thinkers whose pioneering work would enrich the possibilities of women&rsquo;s lives for generations to come.<br><br><b>Praise for</b> <i><b>Square Haunting</b></i><br><br>&ldquo;A fascinating voyage through the lives of five remarkable women . . . moving and immersive.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;Edmund Gordon, author of <i>The Invention of Angela Carter: A Biography</i></b><br><br>&ldquo;Elegant, erudite, and absorbing, <i>Square Haunting</i> is a startlingly original debut, and Francesca Wade is an author to watch.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;Frances Wilson, author of <i>Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey<br></i></b><br>&ldquo;Outstanding . . . I&rsquo;ll be recommending this all year.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;Sarah Bakewell, author of <i>At the Existentialist Caf&eacute;</i></b><br><b><i><br></i></b>&ldquo;I&#160;much enjoyed&#160;Francesca Wade's book. It almost made me wish I belonged to the pioneering generation of women spoiling eggs on the gas ring and breaking taboos.&rdquo;<b>&mdash;Sue Prideaux, author of <i>I Am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche</i></b>