Non dirlo ad Alfred

Undeniably lovely and pleasant. A comfort read for me. Not the most amazing thing ever written but some amusing escapism. Consider it ever so slightly higher brow pool side reading. More interesting when you realise you’ve maybe never read something written from the pov of a middle aged woman, it is Leggi tutto

I was sad to find this disappointing - I can see why Mitford gave up writing novels after this. Paris in the 50s can't compensate for the plot or characters, who all seem artificial, because they behave in an artificial and thoroughly entitled way. It's possible that the previous books were like thi Leggi tutto

Mitford has an acute sense of the absurd. Remember the thingie about U & Non-U words: Pardon? (Non) What? (U) that reveal class? Nancy started it all. This drollery about diplomacy, inspired by her living in Paris, spoons up like a creamy dessert as the UK ambassador's wife disses the bores & le beau m Leggi tutto

I've been trying to figure out why this book is so disappointing, compared to the first two novels featuring (some of) these characters and I've decided on the reason: Mitford sincerely loved the people she depicted in the first two novels. She loved the bright young things, she loved the inter-war g Leggi tutto

Unfortunately, unlike its two predecessors in the series, this was more fizzle than sizzle. Written 11 years after the others - and set in the late '50's rather than the '30's, it just had a completely different feeling. Also, centering on the rather staid (read: dull) narrator Fanny, rather than th Leggi tutto

Of the 3 Nancy Mitford novels I’ve read thus far, this one was a little less satisfying. Fanny Wincham’s life gets into the fast lane when her beloved husband Alfred, an Oxford professor of theology, is appointed the British Ambassador in Paris. The wife of the previous Ambassador (Lady Leone) is no Leggi tutto