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Book World: Friends knew not to turn their backs on Sybille Bedford. History should, too.
Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
Feb. 18, 2021
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By Selina Hastings
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Creative people are frequently monsters. As Bernard Shaw provocatively declared, the true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art. The novelist and journalist Sybille Bedford (1911-2006), the subject of Selina Hastings s gossipy new biography, is a case in point: Bedford passed most of her 94 years sponging off friends, relations and many lovers, enjoying a life of ease and luxury through their sometimes incomprehensible generosity.