The story of Sackville-West's marriage to Harold Nicolson is one of intrigue and bewilderment. In Portrait of a Marriage, their son Nigel combines his mother's memoir with his own explanations and what he learned from their many letters. Even during her various love affairs with women, Vita maintained a loving marriage with Harold. Portrait of a Marriage presents an often misunderstood but always fascinating couple.

    Not just because he was despicably rich, nor because he owned all their farms, or sired the wild young men who tore up the roads with their galloping horses—it was because they could not pronounce the word magnate, which Mr. Skegg assuredly was. Lady Bythewaite, his common-law wife, had a devouring love that filled her entire existence, but never affected her iron will and the implacable destiny that led from it. Only Clarence of the three sons could claim the Skegg name, and at the first opportunity he ran off to New York to change it. When he came back, it was with a new name, silent picture fame, and a deadly vengeance to act out. Owen Hawkins was the "acknowledged" son who lived with Lady Bythewaite. A delicate lad, his world included each of his family, with a devotion that was frightening. Aiken Cusworth was the bastard. A great hulking horse-tamer with the smell of the fields and animals on him, he had a single bent that yanked man and beast to the line of his terrible whim. Together, they lived in the house of the solitary maggot.