Tom and Viv

by Michael Hastings

Published 1 March 2000
One of the great plays of the eighties, Tom and Viv uncovers life of T.S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne Haigh Wood. For years Vivienne's extraordinary influence was "Stalinized" out of literary history. Throughout their 17-year marriage she suffered a hormonal imbalance, and was eventually certified for a mental asylum. She died stripped of her rights and property, never visited by Eliot.