Love from Nancy

The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh

Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, two of the twentieth century's most amusing and gifted writers, matched wits and exchanged insults in more than five hundred letters, a continuous irreverent dialogue that stretched for twenty-two years. Their delicious cor

The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters

The great wits and beauties of their age, the Mitford sisters were immoderate in their passions for ideas and people, counting among their diverse friends Adolf Hitler and Queen Elizabeth II, Cecil Beaton and President Kennedy, Evelyn Waugh and Givenchy.

In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor

In 1956, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire - youngest of the six Mitford sisters - invited the writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor to visit Lismore Castle, in Ireland. This halcyon visit sparked off a deep friendship and a lifelong exchange of highly en

Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy

This collection of essays started with Nancy Mitford's article “The English Aristocracy”, published in 1955 in the magazine Encounter. The expressions “U” (Upper Class) and “Non-U” (non-Upper Class) came to prominence in this article, which so

A Talent To Annoy

Nancy Mitford was the eldest and most famous of the Mitfords. However, before she shot to fame as a novelist with The Pursuit of Love, she had gathered a huge following with articles pouring drops of acid on the pretensions of the aristocracy. A relentles

Madame de Pompadour

When Madame de Pompadour became the mistress of Louis XV, no one expected her to retain his affections for long. A member of the bourgeoisie rather than an aristocrat, she was physically too cold for the carnal Bourbon king, and had so many enemies that s

The Blessing

With characteristically amusing malice, Mitford blends a comedy of manners with culture shock as Grace Allingham, a naive English rose, impulsively marries Charles-Edouard de Valhubert, a French nobleman with all his class's charm and decadence. Both are

The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952-73

Nancy Mitford was a brilliant personality, a remarkable novelist and a legendary letter writer. It is not widely known that she was also a bookseller. From 1942 to 1946 she worked in Heywood Hill's famous shop in Curzon Street, and effectively ran it when

Highland Fling

The Scottish Highlands may never be the same after the Bright Young Things meet the Dull Old things on a long vacation at Dalloch. Jane Dacre finds painter Albert Gates irresistible, but the Old Regime is less enraptured, for Albert is an outrageous prank