Editing Violet Trefusis (section)

==Later life in France==
[[File:Meeting François MITTERRAND Caen 1981.jpg|thumb|left|President [[François Mitterrand]], one of Trefusis' close friends]]

From 1923 on, Trefusis was one of the many lovers of the [[Singer Corporation|Singer]] sewing machine heiress [[Winnaretta Singer]], daughter of [[Isaac Singer]] and wife of the homosexual [[Prince Edmond de Polignac]], who introduced her to the artistic ''beau-monde'' in Paris.<ref>{{cite book |last=Srinivasan|first=Archana |title=Modern Inventors |year=2007 |publisher=Sura Books |isbn=978-81-7478-636-4 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qD40UgDIfYkC&q=Winnaretta+Singer+and+violet+trefusis&pg=PA6}}</ref> Trefusis conceded more and more to her mother's model of being "socially acceptable" but, at the same time, not wavering in her sexuality.<ref name=scandalouslove/> Singer, like Sackville-West before her, dominated the relationship, though apparently to mutual satisfaction. The two were together for many years and seem to have been content.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} Trefusis's mother, Alice Keppel, did not object to this affair, most likely because of Singer's wealth and power, and the fact that Singer carried on the affair in a much more disciplined way.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} Trefusis seemed to prefer the role of the [[dominance and submission|submissive]] and therefore fitted well with Singer, who, whip in hand, was typically dominant and in control in her relationships.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} Neither was completely faithful during their long affair, but, unlike Trefusis's affair with Sackville-West, this seems to have had no negative effect on their understanding.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

[[File:III Villa dell'Ombrellino, Firenze, Italy (2).jpg|thumb|Villa dell'Ombrellino, Florence, Italy]]

In 1924, Mrs Keppel bought L'Ombrellino, a large villa overlooking [[Florence]], where [[Galileo Galilei]] had once lived. After her parents' death in 1947, Trefusis would become the chatelaine of L'Ombrellino till the end of her life.<ref name=scandalouslove/> Denys Trefusis died in 1929, completely estranged from his seemingly unfeeling wife. After his death,<ref name=scandalouslove/> Trefusis published several novels, some in English, some in French, that she had written in her medieval "Tour" in [[Saint-Loup-de-Naud]], Seine-et-Marne, France – a gift from Winnaretta.

[[Joseph Alsop]], an American journalist, recounts in his autobiography a meeting with Violet in Florence. "Mrs. Trefusis's enthusiasms had long since inspired the rhyme 'Mrs Trefusis never refuses.' Governor Olson, as it turned out was not refused ... they were much cheered up by one another."<ref>{{cite book |last=Alsop |first=Joseph |title=I've Seen the Best of It |year=1992 |publisher=W.W. Norton |isbn=9780393029178 |url=https://archive.org/details/iveseenbestofitm00also |url-access=registration}} {{page needed|date=July 2014}}</ref>

[[Nancy Mitford]] said that Trefusis's autobiography should be titled ''Here Lies Violet Trefusis'', and partly based the character of Lady Montdore in ''[[Love in a Cold Climate]]'' on her.<ref>Holroyd 2011, p. 239.</ref>

[[François Mitterrand]], who later became President of the French Republic in 1981, in his chronicle ''La Paille & le Grain'', mentions his friendship with Violet Trefusis under 2 March 1972, when he received "the telegram" informing of her death. He goes on to discuss how, before Christmas 1971, he went to Florence to visit her as he knew she was in her last months of life: he had dinner with her and [[Frank Ashton-Gwatkin]], who was a senior Foreign Office official at the beginning of the Second World War, at her house in Florence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mitterrand |first=François |author-link=François Mitterrand |title=La Paille & le Grain |publisher=Flammarion |year=1975 |isbn=2-08-060778-2}} {{page needed|date=July 2014}}</ref>