Quentin Bell, younger son of Clive and Vanessa Bell, has been not only a biographer but also a painter, sculptor, and art critic. Uniquely qualified for understanding and interpreting the world of Bloomsbury, his superlative two-volume biography of his aunt Virginia Woolf appeared in 1972; it succeeds both as a narrative and as an evocation of the Bloomsbury milieu. Bell is a craftsman in words; he writes with clarity, intimacy, and an appealing sense of the absurd.

Quentin Claudian Stephen Bell was born on 19 August 1910 at 46 Gordon Square, London. His elder brother, Julian, who died in 1937, had been born two years earlier. Bell was educated at Leighton Park. He showed early talent as a painter. His first exhibition was held in 1935. He worked in the Political Warfare Executive from 1941 to 1943. After the war Bell continued to exhibit, while developing his capacities as a scholar and teacher. He was appointed...