[Ad- gifted experience] When we went to Sissinghurst Castle Garden, we came to explore their new exhibition Passion and Politics: Sissinghurst and Greece, which is all about Vita’s husband, Harold Nicolson and his role in post-war Greece. This exhibition actually includes a bunch of unseen photographs and personal items from Harold himself, creating an intimate feeling exhibition, that builds on the small history of the gardens itself, in the outdoor below area of the same building.
Though Vita is the more famous of the pair, her husband Harold spent quite some time studying ancient Greece and got to define a lot of current Greece, through his political career. He travelled to the Peace Conference, where he was an ambassador for Britain, to Greece, as he worked with the heads of the alleys at the end of World War 1. There was a deeper look into his personality using the items displayed, including these doodles that he made during the meetings, which were a bit silly, in the way they depicted other people who attended the conference.
There were also personal quotes from his private diaries in Passion and Politics: Sissinghurst and Greece exhibition, about his personal life with Vita and living a “Greek Love” livestyle. These I found to be extremely intimate, especially alongside his letters to his wife. These letters were sometimes winding her up and other times talking about how much he loved her and missed her while she was away. Vita, at the time that he was traveling a lot, started dating a women. This piece goes over how that entire thing panned out.
The entire exhibition is on the shorter side, being something you can fully explore in 30 minutes, but it’s one that has clearly been put together with a lot of care. There is a video running, showing the Sissinghurst Castle Garden as well, and everything does tie into the garden, with a little area in the oast house which talks about why the gardens were designed the way they were and how Harold’s influence on these gardens manifested.
The Passion and Politics: Sissinghurst and Greece is currently open until late March 2026.
You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!
I do love looking around museums especially when there is a story behind it and you see items owned and used by the person. I will have to look at visiting here