Virginia Woolf's close friend Vita Sackville-West,was the model for the androgynous hero of Orlando.The deliberately fanciful story spans a period from the 16th to the 20th centuries and take the hero,Orlando,from being an handsome boy of 16,through encounters with Elisabeth I to a love affair with a Muscovite princess;from Ambassador Extraordinary to encounters,now as Lady Orlando,with Pope,Addison and Swift,and childbirth.Orlando is a brilliantly perceptive and delicious fantasy containing many valuable historical insights and is a joy to read.