WRITING to her great friend Evelyn Waugh about her new novel, published in 1945, and contrasting it with his roughly contemporary Brideshead Revisited, Nancy Mitford told him it was: ‘About my family, a very different cup of tea, not grand and far madder.’ And so it was. Where Brideshead is a stately jewel, elegantly phrased, languorous and nostalgic, The Pursuit of Love is tight-packed and intimate, a gossipy, funny, affectionate portrayal of inter-war, upper-crust life.
That was only to be expected. Waugh wrote as the wistful onlooker, the middle-class outsider; Mitford was on the inside as the eldest of the celebrated Mitford Girls, who entertained and scandalised the public in the 1920s and 1930s.
Some insist on reading the book as a social document, which, of course, it is, describing an age on the point of vanishing before its participants’ eyes, but it’s better to enjoy it as a romp, always leaving space for the story’s sad, resigned undertow to surface. There has seldom been a more entertaining cast of characters assembled for our delight than the crazy bunch who gather at the ‘ugly’ Georgian pile of Alconleigh, ‘as bare as a barracks, stuck up on the high hillside’ in the windswept Cotswolds.
This is the home of the Radletts, headed by eccentric Uncle Matthew, based on Mitford’s father, Lord Redesdale; his wife, the vague and gentle Aunt Sadie (their mother); and their unruly offspring, made up of various Mitford composites—Jassy, with her precious running-away money, echoes Jessica Mitford (later the author of Hons and Rebels) who eloped to the Spanish Civil War. The great family friend Lord Merlin was based on the flamboyant aesthete Lord Berners.
Denne historien er fra July 21, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra July 21, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
