Vintage Lives: Flush

First published in 1933, 'Flush' is the lively story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel. Although Flush has adventures of his own, he is also the means of providing us with glimpses of the life of his owner and her days at Wimpole Street as an invalid, her courtship by Robert Browning, their elopement and life together in Italy.

Quentin Bell described 'Flush' as an attempt to describe "Wimpole Street, Whitechapel and Italy from a dog's point of view, to create a world of canine smells, fidelities and lusts."

Containing the original illustrations - four drawings by Vanessa Bell - and a photograph of the model for 'Flush', the golden cocker spaniel called Pinka given to Virginia Woolf by Vita Sackville-West, 'Flush' brings out Virginia's delightful humour as nothing else has ever done.