A revelatory biography of the Bloomsbury outsider and influential critic who championed modern art
Detail of a portrait of Clive Bell by Roger Fry circa 1924. Photograph: Alamy
Detail of a portrait of Clive Bell by Roger Fry circa 1924. Photograph: Alamy
Wed 5 May 2021 04.00 EDT
One day when he was looking along his bookshelves, Mark Hussey realised that they contained no biography of Clive Bell. You can see why it would strike the distinguished Bloomsbury scholar as odd. Over the past 50 years a veritable industry of gossipy life-writing has grown up around even the most minor denizens of early-20th-century WC1, to the point where someone who danced with a man who danced with a woman who danced with Leonard Woolf (assuming Woolf ever kicked up his heels) can boast at least two fat biographies bristling with footnotes.