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Features

The hard lessons The Pursuit of Love teaches us about romance

A flatlay of some of Nancy Mitford's most notable works. 

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Reading lists

Where to start with Nancy Mitford

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast drama collection

Nancy Mitford: Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate & More

BBC Radio adaptations of Nancy Mitford's most famous novels and acclaimed biography of Madame de Pompadour plus bonus programmes 
 
The eldest of the notorious Mitford sisters, Nancy Mitford was renowned for her comic novels of upper-class life. An aristocrat and socialite, she mingled with the 'Bright Young Things' in interwar London, and went on to satirise their foibles in razor-sharp, wickedly funny prose. Collected here are adaptations of her two bestsellers, the semi-autobiographical The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate; her delightful biography of Louis XV's chief mistress; and a pair of fascinating programmes exploring her own unconventional life. 
 
The Pursuit of Love 
This bittersweet tale follows the fortunes of Fanny Logan and her eccentric aristocratic cousins, the Radletts, as they embark on disastrous love affairs and misconceived marriages while searching for Mr Right. 
 
Cast 
Lord Radlett - Rolf Lefebvre 
Lady Radlett - Joan Matheson 
Fanny - Susan Maudslay 
Linda - Jane Knowles 
Matt - Brian Hewlett 
Captain Davey Warbeck - Godfrey Kenton 
Emily - Joan Hart 
Tony Kroesig - Michael Spice 
Lord Merlin - John Rye 
Bessie - Olwen Griffiths 
Mrs Fletcher - Barbara Mitchell 
The Bolter - Cecile Chevreau 
Other parts played by Sion Probert, George Raistrick, Alan Rowe and William Sleigh. 
Adapted by Alan Melville. Produced by Norman Wright. 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 February 1974 
 
Love in a Cold Climate 
A glamorous invitation to a grand party at Hampton - home of the fantastically rich Montdores and their beautiful daughter Polly - brings Fanny into the world of 1920s high society: and in and out of love when the temperature drops... Amanda Root stars in this sparkling sequel to The Pursuit of Love. 
 
Cast 
Fanny - Amanda Root 
Lady Montdore - Barbara Jefford 
Polly - Teresa Gallagher 
Veronica - Jenny Howe 
Uncle Davey - Jon Strickland 
Aunt Emily - Patience Tomlinson 
Aunt Sadie - Tessa Worsley 
Uncle Matthew - Ioan Meredith 
Boy Dougdale - Stephen Critchlow 
Jassy - Sarah-Jane Holm 
Victoria - Tilly Gaunt 
Cedric - William Hope 
Alfred - Tom Beard 
Dramatised by Claire Luckham. Directed by Marion Nancarrow. 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 3 May 1999 
 
The King's Favourite 
Based on Mitford's Madame de Pompadour, this three-part drama vividly evokes the colourful atmosphere of 18th Century Versailles, and Louis XV's tempestuous relationship with his adored mistress, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour. 
 
Cast 
Narrator - Alan Melville 
Duc d'Orléans - Patrick Tull 
Madame de Ventadour - Katherine Parr 
Infanta Maria of Spain - Elizabeth Proud 
Louis XV (as a youth) - Nigel Anthony 
Duc de Bourbon - James Thomason 
The Queen - Pauline Letts 
Louis XV - Edward de Souza 
Lebel, concierge - Robin Browne 
Marquise de la Ferté - Margot Boyd 
Monsieur Poisson - Harold Kasket 
Madame d'Etioles - Moira Lister 
Monsieur d'Etioles - John Gabriel 
Lasmartre, a huntsman - David Timson 
Lady of the Court - Olwen Griffiths 
Produced by Norman Wright. 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 10-24 December 1971 
 
Dearest Evelyn, Darling Nancy 
Adapted from the witty correspondence of lifelong literary friends Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford, this entertaining, gossipy 'conversation in letters' stars Timothy West and Prunella Scales. 
 
Cast 
Evelyn Waugh - Timothy West 
Nancy Mitford - Prunella Scales 
Adapted by Alan Bell. Produced by Pete Atkin. 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 December 1993 
 
Greatest Lives - Nancy Mitford 
Grace Dent loves Nancy Mitford for her wit, and for the way in which she showed women that it was possible to live your life fully and unconventionally. Matthew Parris asks what it is about Nancy that so inspires Grace, with the aid of Mitford biographer Lisa Hilton. 
Produced by Beth O'Dea. 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 January 2013 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

BBC Radio adaptations of Nancy Mitford's most famous novels and acclaimed biography of Madame de Pompadour plus bonus programmes 
 
 The eldest of the notorious Mitford sisters, Nancy Mitford was renowned for her comic novels of upper-class life. An aristocrat and socialite, she mingled with the 'Bright Young Things' in interwar London, and went on to satirise their foibles in razor-sharp, wickedly funny prose. Collected here are adaptations of her two bestsellers, the semi-autobiographical The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate; her delightful biography of Louis XV's chief mistress; and a pair of fascinating programmes exploring her own unconventional life. 
 
 The Pursuit of Love 
 This bittersweet tale follows the fortunes of Fanny Logan and her eccentric aristocratic cousins, the Radletts, as they embark on disastrous love affairs and misconceived marriages while searching for Mr Right. 
 
Cast 
 Lord Radlett - Rolf Lefebvre 
 Lady Radlett - Joan Matheson 
 Fanny - Susan Maudslay 
 Linda - Jane Knowles 
 Matt - Brian Hewlett 
 Captain Davey Warbeck - Godfrey Kenton 
 Emily - Joan Hart 
 Tony Kroesig - Michael Spice 
 Lord Merlin - John Rye 
 Bessie - Olwen Griffiths 
 Mrs Fletcher - Barbara Mitchell 
 The Bolter - Cecile Chevreau 
 Other parts played by Sion Probert, George Raistrick, Alan Rowe and William Sleigh. 
 Adapted by Alan Melville. Produced by Norman Wright. 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 February 1974 
 
 Love in a Cold Climate 
 A glamorous invitation to a grand party at Hampton - home of the fantastically rich Montdores and their beautiful daughter Polly - brings Fanny into the world of 1920s high society: and in and out of love when the temperature drops... Amanda Root stars in this sparkling sequel to The Pursuit of Love. 
 
Cast 
 Fanny - Amanda Root 
 Lady Montdore - Barbara Jefford 
 Polly - Teresa Gallagher 
 Veronica - Jenny Howe 
 Uncle Davey - Jon Strickland 
 Aunt Emily - Patience Tomlinson 
 Aunt Sadie - Tessa Worsley 
 Uncle Matthew - Ioan Meredith 
 Boy Dougdale - Stephen Critchlow 
 Jassy - Sarah-Jane Holm 
 Victoria - Tilly Gaunt 
 Cedric - William Hope 
 Alfred - Tom Beard 
 Dramatised by Claire Luckham. Directed by Marion Nancarrow. 
 First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 3 May 1999 
 
 The King's Favourite 
 Based on Mitford's Madame de Pompadour, this three-part drama vividly evokes the colourful atmosphere of 18th Century Versailles, and Louis XV's tempestuous relationship with his adored mistress, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour. 
 
Cast 
 Narrator - Alan Melville 
 Duc d'Orléans - Patrick Tull 
 Madame de Ventadour - Katherine Parr 
 Infanta Maria of Spain - Elizabeth Proud 
 Louis XV (as a youth) - Nigel Anthony 
 Duc de Bourbon - James Thomason 
 The Queen - Pauline Letts 
 Louis XV - Edward de Souza 
 Lebel, concierge - Robin Browne 
 Marquise de la Ferté - Margot Boyd 
 Monsieur Poisson - Harold Kasket 
 Madame d'Etioles - Moira Lister 
 Monsieur d'Etioles - John Gabriel 
 Lasmartre, a huntsman - David Timson 
 Lady of the Court - Olwen Griffiths 
 Produced by Norman Wright. 
 First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 10-24 December 1971 
 
 Dearest Evelyn, Darling Nancy 
 Adapted from the witty correspondence of lifelong literary friends Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford, this entertaining, gossipy 'conversation in letters' stars Timothy West and Prunella Scales. 
 
Cast 
Evelyn Waugh - Timothy West 
 Nancy Mitford - Prunella Scales 
 Adapted by Alan Bell. Produced by Pete Atkin. 
 First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 December 1993 
 
 Greatest Lives - Nancy Mitford 
 Grace Dent loves Nancy Mitford for her wit, and for the way in which she showed women that it was possible to live your life fully and unconventionally. Matthew Parris asks what it is about Nancy that so inspires Grace, with the aid of Mitford biographer Lisa Hilton. 
 Produced by Beth O'Dea. 
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 22 January 2013 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Love in a Cold Climate & The Pursuit of Love

Nancy Mitford (Author) Nancy Mitford was born in London on November 28 1904, daughter of the second Baron Redesdale, and the eldest of six girls. Her sisters included Lady Diana Mosley; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and Jessica, who immortalised the Mitford family in her autobiography Hons and Rebels. The Mitford sisters came of age during the Roaring Twenties and wartime in London, and were well known for their beauty, upper-class bohemianism or political allegiances. Nancy contributed columns to The Lady and the Sunday Times, as well as writing a series of popular novels including The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, which detailed the high-society affairs of the six Radlett sisters. While working in London during the Blitz, Nancy met and fell in love with Gaston Palewski, General de Gaulle's chief of staff, and eventually moved to Paris to be near him. In the 1950s she began writing historical biographies - her life of Louis XIV, The Sun King, became an international bestseller. Nancy completed her last book, Frederick the Great, before she died of Hodgkin's disease on 30 June 1973. Laura Thompson (Introducer) Laura Thompson attended stage school and Oxford University. She won the Somerset Maugham Award with her first book, The Dogs, and wrote two books about horse racing while living in Newmarket. Her biographical study of Nancy Mitford, Life in a Cold Climate, was published in 2003, followed by Agatha Christie: An English Mystery (2008), A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan (2014), and Take Six Girls: The Lives of the MitfordSisters (2015). She now lives in Richmond.

Nancy Mitford modelled the characters in her best-known novels on her own unconventional (and at the time of writing, notorious) family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin, Fanny ('the Bolter's girl'), on one of her frequent visits to their country estate: Uncle Matthew the blustering patriarch, owner of that bloodied entrenching tool above the fireplace, who hunts his children with bloodhounds; vague Aunt Sadie, and six children recklessly eager to grow up. 
 The Pursuit of Love is the story of Linda, the most beautiful and wayward of the Radlett daughters, who falls first for a stuffy Tory politician, then an ardent Communist (whom she follows to the Spanish Civil War), and finally a very wicked and irresistibly charming French duke. 
 Love in a Cold Climate, again related by Fanny, focuses on Polly Hampton, long groomed for the perfect marriage by her fearsome mother, Lady Montdore, but secretly determined to pursue her own course.

Highland Fling

Nancy Mitford's first novel, a set of completely incompatible and hilariously eccentric characters collide in a Scottish castle, where bright young things play pranks on their stodgy elders until the frothy plot climaxes in ghost sightings and a dramatic fire. 
 
Inspired in part by Mitford's youthful infatuation with a Scottish aristocrat, her story follows young Jane Dacre to a shooting party at Dulloch Castle, where she tramps around a damp and chilly moor on a hunting expedition with formidable Lady Prague, xenophobic General Murgatroyd, one-eyed Admiral Wenceslaus, and an assortment of other ancient and gouty peers of the realm, while falling in love with Albert, a surrealist painter with a mischievous sense of humour. 
Light-hearted and sparkling with witty banter, Highland Fling was Mitford's first foray into the delightful fictional world for which the author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate later became so celebrated. 
 
'A delightful comedy of manners' - The Times

Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London, the eldest child of the second Baron Redesdale. She had written four novels, including Wigs on the Green (1935), before the success of The Pursuit of Love in 1945, which she followed with Love in a Cold Climate (1949), The Blessing (1951) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). She also wrote four works of biography. Nancy Mitford was awarded the CBE in 1972.

Pigeon Pie

Set at the outbreak of World War II, Lady Sophia Garfield dreams of becoming a beautiful spy but manages not to notice a nest of German agents right under her nose. Until the murder of her maid and the kidnapping of her beloved bulldog force them on her attention, with heroic and absurd results. 
 
One of Mitford's earliest novels and written before Christmas 1939, Pigeon Pie is delivered with a touch lighter than that of her later masterpieces but no less entertaining. This comedy combines glamour, wit, and a fiendishly absurd plot into an irresistible literary confection. 
 
'This sparking and deliciously acid commentary of the social world.' - The Scotsman

With Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing

The Pursuit of Love

'A masterpiece ... The Pursuit of Love is one of the funniest books ever written' India Knight, The Times 
 
Nancy Mitford's brilliantly witty, irreverent stories of the upper classes in pre-war London and Paris conjure up a world of glamour, gossip and decadence. In The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing, her extraordinary heroines deal with armies of eccentric relatives, the excitement of love and passion, and the thrills of the social Season. But beneath the perfectly timed comic dialogue, these novels are also bittersweet reminders of the brevity of life and love. 
 
With an Introduction by Philip Hensher 
 
'A kind of perfection' Olivia Laing, Guardian 
 
'Peerless ... beneath the surface of Mitford's wit, there is something infinitely more melancholy at work' Zoe Heller

Born into one of the aristocracy's more eccentric families and educated at home with a clutch of siblings, Mitford used childhood experience, lightly fictionalised, in her comic novels. She also wrote biographies, translated from the French and edited a celebrated symposium on English Aristocrats.

In one of the wittiest novels of them all, Nancy Mitford casts a finely gauged net to capture perfectly the foibles and fancies of the English upper class. Set in the privileged world of the county house party and the London season, this is a comedy of English manners between the wars by one of the most individual, beguiling and creative users of the language.

The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh (Author) Evelyn Waugh was born in Hampstead in 1903 and educated at Hertford College, Oxford. In 1928 he published his first novel, Decline and Fall, which was soon followed by Vile Bodies (1930), Black Mischief (1932), A Handful of Dust (1934) and Scoop (1938). During these years he also travelled extensively and converted to Catholicism. In 1939 Waugh was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, experiences which informed his Sword of Honour trilogy (1952-61). His most famous novel, Brideshead Revisited (1945), was written while on leave from the army. Waugh died in 1966. Nancy Mitford (Author) Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London, the eldest child of the second Baron Redesdale. She had written four novels, including Wigs on the Green (1935), before the success of The Pursuit of Love in 1945, which she followed with Love in a Cold Climate (1949), The Blessing (1951) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). She also wrote four works of biography. Nancy Mitford was awarded the CBE in 1972.

Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh were two of the twentieth century's most amusing and gifted writers, who matched wits and traded literary advice in more than five hundred letters over twenty-two years. Dissecting their friends, criticizing each other's books and concealing their true feelings beneath a barrage of hilarious and knowing repartee, they found it far easier to conduct a friendship on paper than in person. This correspondence provides a colourful glimpse into the literary and social circles of London and Paris, during the Second World War and for twenty years after.

Christmas Pudding

Make a loved one smile with this classic Christmas read - a perfect stocking filler! 
 
'Christmas Day was organized by Lady Bobbin with the thoroughness and attention to detail of a general leading his army into battle . . .' 
 
The formidable fox-hunter Lady Bobbin is holding a Christmas house party. Attendees include her rebellious daughter Philadelphia, a pompous suitor, a couple of children poring over newspaper death notices, and a dejected writer whose first serious novel has been declared the funniest book of the year. Add to the mix beautiful ex-courtesan Amabelle Fortescue and her guests staying in a neighbouring cottage and you have a ribald tale of true love and false fidelity, hijinks and low morals, not to mention the consumption of a considerable quantity of Christmas spirit. 
 
'Utter, utter bliss' Daily Mail 
 
'A dazzling comic delight' The Times 
 
'Very funny, irresistible' Spectator

The formidable fox-hunting obsessed Lady Bobbin has put together a Christmas house party at Compton Bobbin, including her rebellious daughter Philadelphia, the girl's pompous suitor, a couple of children obsessed with newspaper death notices, and an aspiring writer whose deadly (in more ways than one) serious first novel has been acclaimed as the funniest book of the year, to his utter dismay. And then there is beautiful ex courtesan Amabelle Fortescue and her group of guests staying in a nearby cottage ... As the house parties starts to unravel, so the jokes increase: this is Nancy Mitford's second novel and one of her earliest forays into the world of the Bright Young Things.

Now a major series on BBC and Prime Video directed by Emily Mortimer and starring Lily James and Andrew Scott

Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love is one of the funniest, sharpest novels about love and growing up ever written. 
 
'He was the great love of her life you know.' 
'Oh, dulling,' said my mother, sadly, 'One always thinks that. Every, every time.' 
 
Longing for love, obsessed with weddings and let's not even mention the mysteries of sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the hunt for the ideal lover. But finding the perfect match is much harder than any of the sisters had ever dreamed. Linda is first courted by a Tory MP and then becomes embroiled with a handsome but humourless communist, before she risks everything on a chance at real, head-over-heels love in war-torn Paris . . . 
 
'Peerless' Zoe Heller

The story's genius lies in its wicked humour, which remains relentlessly uplifting even as the Blitz begin to smash all the hopes of that pre-war arcadia

Too spiky and intelligent, I think, to qualify as an altogether cosy read [...] beneath the brittle surface of Mitford's wit there is something infinitely more melancholy at work - something that is apt to snag you and pull you into its dark undertow when you are least expecting it

Nancy Mitford taught the wonderful truth that laughter can see you through the darkest hours of your life

The Millennial faint-hearted will be appalled by Mitford's depiction of class and gender. But Mitford's triumph is that, as the Radletts live and laugh and cry, we [cry] with them

In her novels Nancy mastered her life, making everyone who was different or difficult into figures of mirth, moving only among the aristocracy, and infusing the world with a spirit of lazy, delightful romance

A dazzling comic delight.

'Obsessed with sex!' said Jassy, 'there's nobody so obsessed as you, Linda. Why if I so much as look at a picture you say I'm a pygmalionist.' 
In the end we got far more information out of a book called Ducks and Duck Breeding. 
'Ducks can only copulate,' said Linda, after studying this for a while, 'in running water. Good luck to them.' 
 
Oh the tedium of waiting to grow up! Longing for love, obsessed with weddings and sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the look out for the perfect lover. But finding Mr Right is much harder than any of the sisters thought. Linda must suffer marriage first to a stuffy Tory MP and then to a handsome and humorousless communist before finding real love in war-torn Paris . . . 
 
The Pursuit of Love is one of the funniest, sharpest novels about love and growing up ever written.

The Complete Novels

The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford. 
 
Here in one volume are all eight of Nancy Mitford's sparklingly astute, hilarious and completely unputdownable novels: Highland Fling, Christmas Pudding, Wigs on the Green, Pigeon Pie, The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate, The Blessing and Don't Tell Alfred. 
 
Published over a period of 30 years, they provide a wonderful glimpse of the bright young things of the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties in the city and in the shires; firmly ensconced at home or making a go of it abroad; and what the upper classes really got up to in peace and in war. 
 
'Entirely original, inimitable and irresistible' Spectator 
 
'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh 
 
'Utter, utter bliss' Daily Mail

In print together, in one volume, are ALL eight of Nancy Mitford's sparklingly astute, hilarious and completely unputdownable novels. 
 
Published over a period of 30 years, they provide a wonderful glimpse of the bright young things of the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties in the city and in the shires; firmly ensconced at home or making a go of it abroad; and what the upper classes really got up to in peace and in war.

The wickedly funny sequel to The Pursuit of Love

Love in a Cold Climate

Love in a Cold Climate is the wickedly funny sequel to Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love which is now a major BBC series and Prime Video series directed by Emily Mortimer starring Lily James, Andrew Scott and Dominic West 
 
'How lovely - green velvet and silver. I call that a dream, so soft and delicious, too.' She rubbed a fold of the skirt against her cheek. 'Mine's silver lame, it smells like a bird cage when it gets hot but I do love it. Aren't you thankful evening skirts are long again?' 
 
Ah, the dresses! But oh, the monotony of the Season, with its endless run of glittering balls. Even fabulously fashionable Polly Hampton - with her startling good looks and excellent social connections - is beginning to wilt under the glare. 
 
Groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, fearsome Lady Montdore, Polly instead scandalises society by declaring her love for her uncle 'Boy' Dougdale, the Lecherous Lecturer, and promptly eloping to France. But the consequences of this union no one could quite expect . . . 
 
NANCY MITFORD'S WICKEDLY FUNNY SERIES CONTINUES IN DON'T TELL ALFRED. 
 
***** 
 
'Peerless' Zoe Heller 
 
'Entirely original, inimitable and irresistible' Philip Hensher, Spectator 
 
'A comic genius' Independent on Sunday

'How lovely - green velvet and silver. I call that a dream, so soft and delicious, too.' She rubbed a fold of the skirt against her cheek. 'Mine's silver lamé, it smells like a bird cage when it gets hot but I do love it. Aren't you thankful evening skirts are long again?' 
 
Ah, the dresses! But oh, the monotony of the Season, with its endless run of glittering balls. Even fabulously fashionable Polly Hampton - with her startling good looks and excellent social connections - is beginning to wilt under the glare. 
 
Groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, fearsome Lady Montdore, Polly instead scandalizes society by declaring her love for her uncle 'Boy' Dougdale, the Lecherous Lecturer, and promptly eloping to France. But the consequences of this union no one could quite expect . . . 
 
Love in a Cold Climate is the wickedly funny follow-up to The Pursuit of Love and explores the mystery of sexual attraction.

Don't Tell Alfred

Don't Tell Alfred is the wickedly funny sequel to Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, which is now a major BBC series and Prime Video series directed by Emily Mortimer starring Lily James, Andrew Scott and Dominic West, and Love in a Cold Climate 
 
'I believe it would have been normal for me to have paid a visit to the outgoing ambassadress. However the said ambassadress had set up such an uninhibited wail when she knew she was to leave, proclaiming her misery to all and sundry and refusing so furiously to look on the bright side, that it was felt she might not be very nice to me.' 
 
Fanny is married to absent-minded Oxford don Alfred and content with her role as a plain, tweedy housewife. But overnight her life changes when Alfred is appointed English Ambassador to Paris. In the blink of an eye, Fanny's mixing with royalty, Rothschilds and Dior-clad wives, throwing cocktail parties and having every indiscreet remark printed in tomorrow's papers. 
 
But with the love lives of her new friends to organize, an aristocratic squatter who won't budge and the antics of her maverick sons to thwart, Fanny's far too busy to worry about the diplomatic crisis looming on the horizon . . . 
 
***** 
 
'Peerless' Zoe Heller 
 
'A comic genius' Independent on Sunday 
 
'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh

'I believe it would have been normal for me to have paid a visit to the outgoing ambassadress. However, the said ambassadress had set up such an uninhibited wail when she knew she was to leave, proclaiming her misery to all and sundry and refusing so furiously to look on the bright side, that is was felt she might not be very nice to me.' 
 
Fanny is married to absent-minded Oxford don Alfred and content with her role as a plain, tweedy housewife with 'ghastly' clothes. But overnight her life changes when Alfred is appointed English Ambassador to Paris. In the blink of an eye Fanny's mixing with Royalty, Rothschilds and Dior-clad wives, throwing cocktail parties and having every indiscreet remark printed in tomorrow's papers. 
 
But with the love lives of her new friends to organize, an aristocratic squatter who won't budge and the antics of her maverick sons to thwart, Fanny's far too busy to worry about the diplomatic crisis looming on the horizon . . . 
 
Don't Tell Alfred continues the hilarious stories of characters Nancy Mitford introduced in The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing.

The Blessing

The Blessing by Nancy Mitford 
 
It isn't just Nanny who finds it difficult in France when Grace and her young son Sigi are finally able to join her dashing aristocratic husband Charles-Edouard after the war. For Grace is out of her depth among the fashionably dressed and immaculately coiffured French women, and shocked by their relentless gossiping and bedhopping. When she discovers her husband's tendency to lust after every pretty girl he sees, it looks like trouble. And things get even more complicated when little Sigi steps in . . . 
 
The Blessing is a hilarious tale of love, fidelity, and the English abroad, tailored as brilliantly as a New Look Dior suit. 
 
'Entirely original, inimitable and irresistible' Spectator 
 
'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh 
 
'Utter, utter bliss' Daily Mail

Grace and her young son Sigi are finally able to join her dashing aristocratic husband Charles-Edouard in France after the war. But Grace is out of her depth among the fashionably dressed and immaculately coiffured French women, and shocked by their relentless gossiping and bedhopping. When she discovers her husband's tendency to lust after every pretty girl he sees, it looks like trouble. And things get even more complicated when little Sigi steps in . . . 
 
The Blessing is a hilarious tale of love, fidelity, and the English abroad, tailored as brilliantly as a New Look Dior suit.

Wigs on the Green

Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford is a hilarious satire of the upper classes. 
 
 Eugenia Malmains is one of the richest girls in England and an ardent supporter of Captain Jack and the Union Jackshirts; Noel and Jasper are both in search of an heiress (so much easier than trying to work for the money); Poppy and Marjorie are nursing lovelorn hearts; and the beautiful bourgeois Mrs Lace is on the prowl for someone near Eugenia's fabulous country home at Chalford, and much farce ensues. 
 
One of Nancy Mitford's earliest novels, Wigs on the Green has been out of print for nearly seventy-five years. Nancy's sisters Unity and Diana were furious with her for making fun of Diana's husband, Oswald Moseley, and his politics, and the book caused a rift between them all that endured for years. Nancy Mitford skewers her family and their beliefs with her customary jewelled barbs, but there is froth, comedy and heart here too. 
 
'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh

Eugenia Malmains is one of the richest girls in England and an ardent supporter of Captain Jack and the Union Jackshirts; Noel and Jasper are both in search of an heiress (so much easier than trying to work for the money); Poppy and Marjorie are nursing lovelorn hearts; and the beautiful bourgeois Mrs Lace is on the prowl for someone to lighten the boredom of her life. They all congregate near Eugenia's fabulous country home at Chalford, and much farce ensues. 
 
One of Nancy Mitford's earliest novels, Wigs on the Green has been out of print for nearly seventy-five years. Nancy's sisters Unity and Diana were furious with her for making fun of Diana's husband, Oswald Mosley, and his politics, and the book caused a rift between them all that endured for years. Nancy Mitford skewers her family and their beliefs with her customary jewelled barbs, but there is froth, comedy and heart here too.

The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford

DISCOVER ALL EIGHT OF NANCY MITFORD'S SPARKLINGLY ASTUTE, HILARIOUS AND COMPLETELY UNPUTDOWNABLE NOVELS IN ONE COLLECTION - WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM INDIA KNIGHT 
 
Published over a period of 30 years, they provide a wonderful glimpse of the bright young things of the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties in the city and in the shires; firmly ensconced at home or making a go of it abroad; and what the upper classes really got up to in peace and in war. 
 
The collection includes: 
 
- The Pursuit of Love 
- Love in a Cold Climate 
- Don't Tell Alfred 
- The Blessing 
- Pidgeon Pie 
- Wigs on the Green 
- Christmas Pudding 
- Highland Fling 
 
'Entirely original, inimitable and irresistible' Spectator 
 
'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh 
 
'Utter, utter bliss' Daily Mail

Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London, the eldest child of the second Baron Redesdale. Her childhood in a large remote country house with her five sisters and one brother is recounted in the early chapters of The Pursuit of Love (1945), which according to the author, is largely autobiographical. Apart from being taught to ride and speak French, Nancy Mitford always claimed she never received a proper education. She started writing before her marriage in 1932 in order 'to relieve the boredom of the intervals between the recreations established by the social conventions of her world' and had written four novels, including Wigs on the Green (1935), before the success of The Pursuit of Love in 1945. After the war she moved to Paris where she lived for the rest of her life. She followed The Pursuit of Love with Love in a Cold Climate (1949), The Blessing (1951) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). She also wrote four works of biography: Madame de Pompadour, first published to great acclaim in 1954, Voltaire in Love, The Sun King and Frederick the Great. As well as being a novelist and a biographer she also translated Madame de Lafayette's classic novel, La Princesse de Clèves, into English, and edited Noblesse Oblige, a collection of essays concerned with the behaviour of the English aristocracy and the idea of 'U' and 'non-U'. Nancy Mitford was awarded the CBE in 1972.

Available together for the first time in many years, and here in one edition, are ALL eight of Nancy Mitford's sparklingly astute, hilarious and completely unputdownable novels, with a new introduction by India Knight. 
 
 Published over a period of 30 years, they provide a wonderful glimpse of the bright young things of the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties in the city and in the shires; firmly ensconced at home or making a go of it abroad; and what the upper classes really got up to in peace and in war.

Frederick the Great

A sparkling biography of one of history's greatest rulers, written in Nancy Mitford's trademark gossipy style

He is everything I like, brave, funny, no nonsense, marvellous taste, common sense, interested in everything

The unmistakable Mitford trill, in whose light, bright cadences an entire hard-to-shock and easy-to-bore view of life is made manifest

[Her books] have the air of having been talked on to the page, in a voice as direct and intimate and clear as a child's

Nancy Mitford was born in London on November 28 1904, daughter of the second Baron Redesdale, and the eldest of six girls. Her sisters included Lady Diana Mosley; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and Jessica, who immortalised the Mitford family in her autobiography Hons and Rebels. The Mitford sisters came of age during the Roaring Twenties and wartime in London, and were well known for their beauty, upper-class bohemianism or political allegiances. Nancy contributed columns to The Lady and the Sunday Times, as well as writing a series of popular novels including The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, which detailed the high-society affairs of the six Radlett sisters. While working in London during the Blitz, Nancy met and fell in love with Gaston Palewski, General de Gaulle's chief of staff, and eventually moved to Paris to be near him. In the 1950s she began writing historical biographies - her life of Louis XIV, The Sun King, became an international bestseller. Nancy completed her last book, Frederick the Great, before she died of Hodgkin's disease on 30 June 1973.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KATE WILLIAMS 
 
Frederick II of Prussia attempted to escape his authoritarian father as a boy, but went on to become one of history's greatest rulers. He loved the flute, and devoted hours of study to the arts and French literature, forming a long-lasting but turbulent friendship with Voltaire. He was a military genius and enlarged the borders of his empire, but he also promoted religious tolerance, economic reform and laid the foundation for a united Germany. Nancy Mitford brings all these contradictions and achievements to sparkling life in an fascinating, intimate biography.

Voltaire in Love

Nancy Mitford's account of this famous love affair of the Enlightenment is, in the author's own words, 'a shriek from beginning to end'

Mitford writes with a profound sympathy for the 17th and 18th century, and Voltaire in Love caps her career as the nonpareil popular biographer of that era

One of the most blissfully entertaining books in our language

Nancy Mitford softened the image of the leader of the French Enlightenment with a witty little book called Voltaire in Love. Mitford took pleasure in showing that the celebrated reformer was much more than a desiccated brainbox

Nancy Mitford was born in London on November 28 1904, daughter of the second Baron Redesdale, and the eldest of six girls. Her sisters included Lady Diana Mosley; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and Jessica, who immortalised the Mitford family in her autobiography Hons and Rebels. The Mitford sisters came of age during the Roaring Twenties and wartime in London, and were well known for their beauty, upper-class bohemianism or political allegiances. Nancy contributed columns to The Lady and the Sunday Times, as well as writing a series of popular novels including The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, which detailed the high-society affairs of the six Radlett sisters. While working in London during the Blitz, Nancy met and fell in love with Gaston Palewski, General de Gaulle's chief of staff, and eventually moved to Paris to be near him. In the 1950s she began writing historical biographies - her life of Louis XIV, The Sun King, became an international bestseller. Nancy completed her last book, Frederick the Great, before she died of Hodgkin's disease on 30 June 1973.

The meeting of Voltaire, successful financier, famous poet and troublemaker, and the enchanting amateur physicist and countess Émilie du Châtelet, was a meeting of both hearts and minds. In the Château de Cirey, the two brilliant intellects scandalised the French aristocracy with their passionate love affair and provoked revolutions both political and scientific with their groundbreaking work in literature, philosophy and physics. 
Nancy Mitford's account of the love affair of the Enlightenment is, in the author's own words, 'a shriek from beginning to end'.

The Sun King

'Gossipy account of the art, affairs and poison paranoia at Louis XIV's Versailles' The Times

Delightfully gossipy...irreverently lifts the skirts of the dolls of Versailles and rummages about underneath, exposing one gem of irresistible detail after another...A glorious tribute to a glorious age

La Mitford plonks the reader amid the seething snobbery and maniacal struggle for High Life that was the Sun King's regime... brilliantly acerbic

Her style is skilfully succinct; and her wit proceeds from uncommon shrewdness...readers will wish her her book were twice as long

Highly entertaining...written with her accustomed dash and gaiety, in a manner which frequently suggests one of her delightful novels... Because Miss Mitford is so at home in Versailles, she confers the same feeling of being at home upon a sympathetic modern reader

Gossipy account of the art, affairs and poison paranoia at Louis XIV's Versailles.

Nancy Mitford was born in London on November 28 1904, daughter of the second Baron Redesdale, and the eldest of six girls. Her sisters included Lady Diana Mosley; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and Jessica, who immortalised the Mitford family in her autobiography Hons and Rebels. The Mitford sisters came of age during the Roaring Twenties and wartime in London, and were well known for their beauty, upper-class bohemianism or political allegiances. Nancy contributed columns to The Lady and the Sunday Times, as well as writing a series of popular novels including The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, which detailed the high-society affairs of the six Radlett sisters. While working in London during the Blitz, Nancy met and fell in love with Gaston Palewski, General de Gaulle's chief of staff, and eventually moved to Paris to be near him. In the 1950s she began writing historical biographies - her life of Louis XIV, The Sun King, became an international bestseller. Nancy completed her last book, Frederick the Great, before she died of Hodgkin's disease on 30 June 1973.

This gossipy account of Louis XIV is a clear and fascinating historical biography from Nancy Mitford. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STELLA TILLYARD 
 
During his reign Louis XIV was the most powerful king in Europe. He presided over a golden age of military and artistic achievement in France, and deployed his charm and talents for spin and intrigue to hold his court and country within his absolute control. The Sun King's universe centred on Versailles, a glittering palace from where Louis conducted his government and complex love affairs. Nancy Mitford describes the daily life of this splendid court in sumptuous detail, recreating the past in vivid colour.

Madame de Pompadour

An eclectic, affectionate biography of Louis XV's most famous and enduring mistress

My favourite biography is Nancy Mitford's Madame de Pompadour - a famous 18th-century French beauty who became Louis XV's mistress. The secret of a good biography is not just to tell the person's story but to create the world in which they lived.

Mitford brings warmth to everything she touches, and her biography of Madame de Pompadour is testimony to that

Reads as if an enchantingly clever woman was pouring out the story to me on the telephone

Nancy Mitford excels in depicting both the brilliant romantic showcase and the recessed world of power... No historian writing in English has given a better pen-picture of Versailles in its heyday

Incontestably her best book, Madame de Pompadour is beautifully written in a rapid, nervous, gay and enthusiastic manner which carries the reader through from first page to last

A wonderful story and Miss Mitford has told it with her own lightness and skill

Nancy Mitford was born in London on November 28 1904, daughter of the second Baron Redesdale, and the eldest of six girls. Her sisters included Lady Diana Mosley; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and Jessica, who immortalised the Mitford family in her autobiography Hons and Rebels. The Mitford sisters came of age during the Roaring Twenties and wartime in London, and were well known for their beauty, upper-class bohemianism or political allegiances. Nancy contributed columns to The Lady and the Sunday Times, as well as writing a series of popular novels including The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, which detailed the high-society affairs of the six Radlett sisters. While working in London during the Blitz, Nancy met and fell in love with Gaston Palewski, General de Gaulle's chief of staff, and eventually moved to Paris to be near him. In the 1950s she began writing historical biographies - her life of Louis XIV, The Sun King, became an international bestseller. Nancy completed her last book, Frederick the Great, before she died of Hodgkin's disease on 30 June 1973.

When Jeanne-Antoinette was nine, she was told by a fortune teller that she would one day become the mistress of the handsome young Louix XV - from that day she was groomed to become 'a morsel fit for a King'. Nancy Mitford lovingly tells the story of how the little girl rose, against a backdrop of savage social-climbing, intrigue, excess and high drama, to become the most powerful women of the eighteenth century French court, Le Pompadour.

Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels casts a finely gauged net to capture perfectly the foibles and fancies of the English upper class, and includes an introduction by Philip Hensher in Penguin Modern Classics. 
 
Nancy Mitford's brilliantly witty, irreverent stories of the upper classes in pre-war London and Paris conjure up a world of glamour, gossip and decadence. In The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing, her extraordinary heroines deal with armies of hilariously eccentric relatives, the excitement of love and passion, and the thrills of the social Season. But beneath the glittering surfaces and perfectly timed comic dialogue, Nancy Mitford's novels are also touching hymns to a lost era and to the brevity of life and love from one of the most individual, beguiling and creative users of the language. 
 
Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London. A member of one of the aristocracy's more eccentric families, and educated at home with a clutch of siblings, Mitford used childhood experience, lightly fictionalised, in her comic novels, including The Pursuit of Love (1945). She also wrote biographies, translated from the French and edited a celebrated symposium on English Aristocrats. 
 
If you enjoyed Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels, you might like Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 
 
'Very funny ... inimitable and irresistible ... one of the most individual, beguiling and creative users of English this century' 
Philip Hensher

Nancy Mitford

Abridged Edition

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. 
 
The Pursuit of Love, a Level 5 Reader, is B1 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing present perfect continuous, past perfect, reported speech and second conditional. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly. 
 
The Pursuit of Love is about the love adventures of Fanny Logan's cousin, Linda Radlett, who is beautiful, brave and fun. Linda finally finds love and seems happy, but this is the 1930s and her country will soon go to war with Germany. What will happen to Linda then?

Nancy Mitford

Books by Nancy Mitford

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The hard lessons The Pursuit of Love teaches us about romance

Where to start with Nancy Mitford

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