Harold Nicolson

Sir Harold Nicolson (1886–1968) was a writer and politician.

He was born in Tehran, Persia, and was educated at Wellington College and Balliol College, Oxford. From 1909 to 1929 he worked in the diplomatic service. From 1930 to 1931 he edited the "Londoner's Diary" for the Evening Standard.

He stood for Combined English Universities in the 1931 general election for Sir Oswald Mosley's New Party, but broke with Mosley on the formation of Mosley's British Union of Fascists. In 1935 he was elected as National Labour MP for Leicester West. He lost his seat in the 1945 election, and stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate in the Croydon North by-election in 1948.

In 1913 he married Vita Sackville-West. They had an open marriage. Once he had to follow Vita to France, where she had "eloped" with Violet Trefusis, to try to win her back. Nicolson himself was no stranger to homosexual affairs. Among others, he was involved in a long-term relationship with Raymond Mortimer, whom both he and Vita affectionately referred to as "Tray". They discussed their shared homosexual tendencies frankly with each other,[citation needed] and remained happy together. They were famously devoted to each other, writing almost every day when separated due to Nicolson's long diplomatic postings abroad, or Vita's insatiable wanderlust. Eventually, he gave up diplomacy, partly so they could live together in England.

They had two sons, Benedict, an art historian, and Nigel, a politician and writer. His younger son Nigel published works by and about his parents, including Portrait of a Marriage, their correspondence, and Nicolson's diary.

In the 1930s, he and his wife acquired and moved to Sissinghurst Castle, near Cranbrook in Kent. There they created the renowned gardens that are now run by the National Trust.

References

Partly based on a Wikipedia article.

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