The habit of writing down the story of our lives has long been a tradition in our family,” comments Juliet Nicolson in her new book, A House Full of Daughters. True enough. Her famous grandfather, the diplomat Harold Nicolson, was a prolific author; his thirty-seven books of history, biography, and fiction were not particularly personal, but his three volumes of Diaries and Letters, edited by his son Nigel (Juliet’s father), reveal a great deal about this wildly unconventional family. His wife, Vita Sackville-West, wrote repeatedly about her predecessors both in memoirs and, thinly disguised, in her novels, particularly The Edwardians (1930). Vita’s mother Victoria produced copious diaries and wrote a book of reminiscences. Nigel Nicolson devoted a substantial portion of his literary career to his colorful parents: his books include the aforementioned Diaries and Letters of his father, editions of his parents’ correspondence, Vita Sackville-West’s Selected Writings, and his own memoir, A Long Life. He also wrote a book about Sissinghurst Castle, his parents’ home, and a short biography of his mother’s lover, Virginia Woolf. His most notable work, though, is the 1973 Portrait of a Marriage, in which he revealed, memorably, just how strange the Nicolson/Sackville-West marriage actually was.

Juliet Nicolson, the author of two readable works of social history and a historical novel, Abdication, is the latest of the family chroniclers, and she has chosen to concentrate