Having recently devoured (totally, totally enjoyed) the Duchess of Devonshire’s latest memoir, Wait for Me! the boss looked aghast when I said that I’d never read any of Nancy Mitford’s fiction and decided to fix that. The result was a loan of her Penguin classic Love in a Cold Climate, a idle weekend and an unweeded garden. Well, it was give up that or the laundry, and clean little boys will win out every time.
Basically, if you’re as uneducated as me (the boss’ terminology!) the story is told from the POV of Fanny, a childhood friend of Polly Hampton and describes beautifully the fancies and failures of the upper classes to find love, happiness or satisfaction in life. It’s a bit incestuous but actively reflects the social morality of the time.
One line I cracked up at reading online reviews of was “basically this is advanced Mills & Boon”. http://classicpenguins.blogspot.com/2009/12/love-in-cold-climate-nancy-mitford.html He might be onto something…that's pretty much how I saw it. Have ordered the others from the library tho!
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