<DIV>Born in the late Victorian age, Harold Nicolson was a man of extraordinary talents?diplomat, politician, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, literary critic, essayist, journalist, and gardener. His position in society and politics gave him insight into the most dramatic events of world history. Married to Vita Sackville-West, one of the most famous writers of her day, their marriage prospered despite their sexual orientations, for both were practicing homosexuals. Unashamedly elitist, bound together by their literary, social, and intellectual pursuits, moving in the refined circles of the Bloomsbury Group and other coteries, they viewed life from the rarified peaks of aristocratic haughtiness. Here, Norman Rose brilliantly sets Nicolson’s story against the wider perspective of his times.</DIV>