If ambivalence is a hallmark of modern motherhood then this is the book that pins it down. Jon King unpacks Vanessa Bell's complex identity as an elusive maternal presence at the heart of Charleston. This nuanced, and profoundly intelligent book is both a pleasure to read and a serious academic contribution to our understandings of matriarchy, of camp and of Bloomsbury.

Wendy Hitchmough, author of Vanessa Bell: The Life and Art of a Bloomsbury Radical

Vanessa Bell and Charleston will make a significant contribution to our knowledge of Vanessa Bell, and to Bloomsbury Studies in general. The book has a gifted fluidity of style and a wonderful range of research.

Professor Maggie Humm, author of The Bloomsbury Photographs

Jon King brings Vanessa Bell's Charleston vividly to life in this beautifully illustrated book. Through his meticulous, thoughtful readings, King makes each space tangible and each painting accessible, immersing the reader in the wondrous worlds Bell created and helping us to understand her artistry anew.

Paris Spies-Gans, art historian and author of A Revolution on Canvas

This original and nuanced study does important work in foregrounding Vanessa Bell's experience of motherhood, the work that motherhood does in her art, and the legacy of maternal relationships at Charleston Farmhouse. For many artists, maternity is still a bar to success. This book puts it centre-stage.

Grace Brockington, Associate Professor of the History of Art, University of Bristol

A richly layered, intellectually daring exploration of maternal legacy, queer domesticity, and artistic inheritance. Jon King's Vanessa Bell and Charleston explores the emotional architecture of Charleston as a site of maternal ambivalence, queer kinship and aesthetic inheritance. A compelling blend of scholarship and storytelling, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in modernism, motherhood, and the Bloomsbury Group.

Dr Hana Leaper is Reader in Histories of Art and Museum Studies, Programme Leader of the Exhibition Studies MA, and Co-Director of the Exhibition Research Lab at Liverpool John Moores University