Ackland’s poetry did not become widely noticed until after her death, when her reflective, confessional style was more in vogue, and left-wing writers of the 1930s had become a popular topic.

[2] She began wearing men's clothing, cut her hair in a short style called the Eton crop, and was at times mistaken for a handsome young boy.

[5] Ackland's reflections upon her relationship with Warner and with American heiress and writer Elizabeth Wade White (1908–1994), were posthumously published in For Sylvia: An Honest Account (1985).

[5] They were taken up with the party's participation in the II International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture, held in Valencia between 4 and 17 July 1937, within the framework of the Spanish Civil War[6] as well as numerous socialist and pacifist activities.

In 1934, Ackland and Warner produced a volume of poetry, "Whether a Dove or a Seagull", an unusual and democratic experiment in writing, as none of the poems is ascribed to either author.

Both became involved with Communist ideals and issues, with Ackland writing a column "Country Dealings" concerning rural poverty for the Daily Worker and the Left Review.

In 1939, the two women attended the American Writers Congress in New York City to consider the loss of democracy in Europe and returned when World War II broke out.

In a similar vein, her distress over the loss of democracy in Europe became a broader identification with Existentialism and the sense that the human condition itself was hopeless.

[citation needed] Ackland died at her home in Maiden Newton, Dorset, on 9 November 1969[9] from breast cancer that had metastasised to her lungs.

One example of a critical analysis is Wendy Mulford's book, This Narrow Place: Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland: Life, Letters and Politics, 1930–1951, Pandora, London, 1988.