I’m lucky enough to live just a fifteen-to-twenty-minute drive from Charleston, former home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. My sister was visiting and had never been, so off we toddled – me somewhat reluctantly as I’ve been several times before and am not a huge  fan of the Bloomsbury Group – they get right up my nose! Nevertheless, whatever your feelings about them – a set of artists writers and intellectuals, described by Dorothy Parker as “living in squares, painting in circles and loving in triangles”, a visit to Charleston is always a delight.

The property is a farmhouse. Vanessa, still married to Clive Bell, and Duncan, her lover, moved there from London, along with Duncan’s other lover, David Garnett, and Vanessa’s sons by Clive: Quentin and Julian. The move was prompted by their pacificism, as men could avoid conscription into the First World War if employed as farm workers.

Vanessa’s sister, Virginia Woolf, lived nearby with her husband Leonard at Monk’s House, Rodmell. Charleston had a stream of Bloomsburyite house guests – indeed one of them, the economist, John Maynard Keynes had his own bedroom there. Keynes was another former lover of Duncan’s and now the couple’s best friend. When he eventually married the Russian ballerina, Lydia Lopokova, they took a house close by.

After the Second World War, Clive Bell also moved to the farmhouse, where he remained platonic friends with his wife. Another little twist on this fascinating ménage, is that Angelica, Vanessa’s daughter by Duncan, born in 1918, was raised as Clive’s child, and was only told that Duncan was her father when she was eighteen. Are you keeping up?

The big draw for visitors to Charleston – apart from fascination with its occupants – is the interior décor. Vanessa and Duncan painted every surface imaginable – fireplaces, homemade lampshades, furniture and included stencilling the walls instead of wallpaper. Whether it’s to your taste or not, you have to admire their commitment.

There are also plenty of artworks and the pièce de resistance at the end of the tour is Duncan’s studio – immediately after Vanessa’s bedroom/bathroom with its delightful view over the garden.

Try to visit, as we did, on a sunny summer’s day so you can enjoy the walled garden at its most splendid. This is a riot of colour and utterly gorgeous.