Nancy Mitford appreciation thread

[PersisFord]

I've just been rereading my complete works for about the millionth time and remembering why I love them so much. Especially the Radletts - "Man's long agony" had me in stitches!

I forget in between reads how sharp and funny it all is. It's a book I often buy for people but get very mixed responses to.

Read “ Pursuit of Love” and loved it but almost found it too heartbreaking. What should I read next?

Love in a Cold Climate. More lovely Fanny! And not as sad.

So I couldn’t wait to go to bookshop. I found iBook sample of her complete works and have started Highland Fling as it comes first in the book! I’m enjoying it so far.

PS saw Love in a Cold Climate on tv gazillions of years ago, not the latest version.

Nancy Mitford is
Oh do agree

Yes....the bliss!

God, I love Nancy Mitford. My best friend and me call people U and non U ( not in anyone's earshot) then collapse in giggles. No one knows what we're on about!

The Mitford Girls by Mary Lovell is a good read

I second Mary Lovell's book. I read it before I read Love in a Cold Climate and you can really see the characters from her life peppering the pages.

I think I’d like her books, never read any. Where should I start?

I read the Lovell biog first then Love in a Cold Climate.

Ooh sorry missed this but I would start with the Pursuit of Love. I love it the best of them all!

Love in a Cold Climate - what a novel. So gloriously funny. One of my favourites.

I have a lovely double edition with tpol and liacc together - it really is bliss.

Ay hev a loft
End a nasty coff
And oft as Ay lie in mai loft
Ay coff.
And toss from sayd to sayd
In mai loft.

Or something like that, can't be bothered to google! I heart Nancy.

Do admit! Thrilled to have found this thread, I have vintage copies of Pursuit and Live that I re/read every so often. They never get old. There’s a great book of their letters also 😁

Love

I found what looks like a great book in the charity shop the other day, Nancy Mitford, A Talent to Annoy which is her essays, journalism and reviews from 1929-1971. I am looking forward to getting stuck in!

A bit late to this thread, but I would recommend Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels for anyone who has loved The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. It's a very readable autobiography which covers a lot of the same Mitford family material that Nancy draws on for her novels. Also I really liked Frances Osborne's The Bolter which is a biography of the woman on whom Fanny's mother was based.