page_title: Violet Trefusis
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Violet Trefusis / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Head of a Young Woman, 1919
context_page_description: Violet Trefusis was an English socialite and author. She is chiefly remembered for her lengthy affair with the poet Vita Sackville-West, which the two women continued after their respective marriages. This was featured in novels by both parties; in Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando: A Biography, and in many letters and memoirs of the period, roughly 1912–1922. She was also the inspiration for Lady Montdore in Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and Muriel in Harold Acton's The Soul's Gymnasium.
  Trefusis published many novels of her own, as well as non-fiction, both in English and French. Although some of her books sold well, others were unpublished, and her overall critical heritage remains lukewarm.
context_section_description: Born Violet Keppel, she was the daughter of Alice Keppel, later a mistress of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and her husband, the Hon. George Keppel, a son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle. But members of the Keppel family thought her biological father was William Beckett, subsequently 2nd Baron Grimthorpe, a banker and MP for Whitby.
  Violet lived her early youth in London, where the Keppel family had a house in Portman Square. When she was four years old, her mother became the favourite mistress of Albert Edward ("Bertie"), the Prince of Wales, who succeeded to the throne as King Edward VII on 22 January 1901. He paid visits to the Keppel household in the afternoon around tea-time on a regular basis until the end of his life in 1910 (George Keppel, who was aware of the affair, was conveniently absent at these times).  
  In 1900 Violet's only sibling, Sonia Rosemary, was born (Sonia is the maternal grandmother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Violet was her great-aunt).
caption: Violet Keppel, 1919, William Bruce Ellis Ranken
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