Selina Hastings - Nancy Mitford

Selina Hastings
Nancy Mitford

Selina Hastings is a writer and literary journalist. She worked at the Daily Telegraph before becoming the literary editor for Harpers & Queen. She is the author of Rosamond Lehmann: A Life; Evelyn Waugh: A Biography (winner of the Marsh Biography Award), and The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she has been a judge of the Booker, Whitbread, British Academy, Ondaatje, and Duff Cooper prizes, and of the UK Biographers Award.

Also by Selina Hastings

Evelyn Waugh: A Biography

Rosamond Lehmann: A Life

The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham

FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, JULY 2012

Copyright 1985 by Selina Hastings

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London, in 1985, and subsequently published in hardcover in the United States by E. P. Dutton, a member of the Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, in 1986.

Vintage and colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file
at the Library of Congress

eISBN: 978-0-307-94947-9

www.vintagebooks.com

Cover design by Megan Wilson
Cover painting by Mogens Tvede, by kind permission of Charlotte Mosley

v3.1

TO PAMELA

AND TO THE MEMORY OF DAVID

Grandfather Redesdale

Grandfather Bowles

Nancy with her parents

Farve in uniform during the First World War

Tom

Out walking at Batsford. Muv, Tom, Miss Mirams, Nancy, Aunt Daphne, Nanny Dicks with Unity in front of her, Pam and Diana.

Pam, Tom, Diana and Nancy in the garden at Asthall

Nancy with Constantia Fenwick

Nanny Dicks

Nancy on the Venice Lido

Self-portrait

Nancy photographed by Derek Jackson at Rignell

Hamish St Clair Erskine

Diana

Hamish with Nancy and Anne Armstrong-Jones at the Ritz

Nina Seafield and Mark Ogilvie-Grant

Peter and Nancy on their wedding-day

Nancy with her French bulldog Millie

Peter in his role as artist, a portrait by his sister-in-law Mary Rodd

Lord and Lady Rennell of Rodd

Peter and Nancy on their ill-fated holiday in Brittany

Gerald Berners

Eddy Sackville-West

Evelyn Waugh

Hamish Hamilton

The six Mitford sisters drawn by William Acton:

Nancy, Pam and Diana

Unity, Decca and Debo. From the collection of the Hon.

Desmond Guinness.

Nancy with Anne Hill outside the shop

Marc de Beauvau-Craon

Gaston Palewski with the General in Algiers, 1942

Nancy (wearing the New Look) with Alvilde Chaplin in the courtyard of the British Embassy in Paris

Duff and Diana Cooper

A letter from Nancy to the Colonel showing him in pursuit of his favourite pastime

Marie Renard, Nancys cook-housekeeper

Portrait of Gaston Palewski, Homme au Gant, by Nora Auric

Mrs Hammersley at Chatsworth

Muv on Inch Kenneth

Nancy and Debo on the Venetian Lagoon

Nancy and Sir Oswald Mosley in the garden of his house, Le Temple de la Gloire, at Orsay

Nancy at a party in London in 1959.

Diana, Pam and Debo at Nancys funeral at Swinbrook on July 7, 1973

I would like to thank first and above all the Hon. Lady Mosley and the Duchess of Devonshire for their kind help, unfailing patience and generous hospitality; and to the Duchess of Devonshire thanks for her permission to quote from the letters and published works of Nancy Mitford. I would also like to thank the Hon. Mrs Derek Jackson for her invaluable recollections; and the Hon. Mrs Robert Treuhaft for allowing me access to her sisters letters. I owe, too, an inestimable debt to the kindness and co-operation of the late M. Gaston Palewski.

Among the many people who have given me help during the writing of this book I would in particular like to acknowledge my gratitude to the following: Sir Harold Acton; Mrs Ralph Arnold; Comte Jean de Baglion; Mrs Rosemary Bailey; Mrs Rosemary Baldwin; Mr Frith Banbury; Dr Andrew Barlow; the Marquess of Bath; the late Prince de Beauvau-Craon and the Princesse de Beauvau-Craon; the Duchess of Beaufort; Lady Beit; Mr Alan Bell; Mme Bettine Bergery; the executors of the estate of the late Sir John Betjeman; Mrs Lesley Blanch; the Keeper of Western Manuscripts, the Bodleian Library; Dr Mary Brazier; Lady Brinckman; M. Jacques Brousse; Mr Gavin Bryars; Mrs Handasyde Buchanan; Mrs Rohan Butler; Contessa Anna-Maria Cicogna; Brigadier Archer Clive; Miss R. E. Colvile; Lady Diana Cooper; Helen, Lady Dashwood; Mr Peter Day; Lady Denham; the Duke of Devonshire; Mr Maldwin Drummond; Mme Denise Duchon; Lord Dulverton; Lady Mary Dunn; Viscountess Eccles; Mr Peter Elwes; the Hon. David St Clair Erskine; Prince Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucinge; the Hon. Mrs Daphne Fielding; the Hon. Mrs Mark Fleming; Mr Alastair Forbes; the Hon. Mrs Derek Gascoigne; Mme Jean Gaudin; the late Mr Geoffrey Gilmour; Dr Henry Gillespie; Lady Gladwyn; Mme Gabrielle Guimont; the Hon. Jonathan Guinness; Mr John Hadfield; Prof. Robert Halsband; Mr Hamish Hamilton; Mr Christopher Hammersley; Mr Charles Harding; Lady Harrod; Mr Derek Hart; Sir Rupert Hart-Davis; Comtesse Grard dHauteville; Miss Alethea Hayter; Sir William & Lady Hayter; Mr Robert Heber-Percy; the late Mr Peter Hesketh; Mr Roger Hesketh; Mr Derek Hill; Mr Heywood & Lady Anne Hill; Mr Bevis Hillier; Mr Anthony Hobson; Mme Paulette Howard-Johnston; the late Mrs Richard Hughes; the Librarian of the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas; the late Prof. Derek Jackson; Violet, Lady Jackson; the late Mr Julian Jebb; Miss Rosemary Kerr; Sir Osbert Lancaster; Miss Margaret Lane; Mrs Joy Law; Mr Valentine Lawford; Mr & Mrs James Lees-Milne; Mr Patrick Leigh Fermor; Mrs Peter Levi; Mrs Joseph Links; Prince & Princess von Loewenstein; the late Mr Roger Machell; Mr Lachlan Maclean; Mr Anthony Mann; the Dowager Viscountess Mersey; Mrs Lewis Motley; Mr Robert Morley; Miss Lucy Norton; Viscount Norwich; Mrs Frances Partridge; Mr Brian Pearce; Mr Michael Pearman; Mr John Phillips; the late Mr Peter de Polnay; Mr Anthony Powell; Mr Stuart Preston; Mr Peter Quennell; Lord Rennell; the executors of the estate of the late Lord Rennell; the late Hon. Mrs Gustav Rodd; Mme Jeanne Rdel; Mrs Joan Rodzianko; Mr Ned Rorem; Mr Richard Shone; Mr Julian Slade; Sir Hugh Smiley; Miss Madeau Stewart; Lady Marjorie Stirling; the late Mr John Sutro & Mrs Sutro; Mr Christopher Sykes; Lord Thomas; Mr Patrick Trevor-Roper; Mr Hugo Vickers; Mr Auberon Waugh; Miss Patchy Wheatley; Mr Sam White; Mr A. N. Wilson.

Finally I would like to give especial thanks to Mr Stanley Olson for his help and encouragement.

When Linda, penniless, sinks down on her suitcase in the Gare du Nord and bursts into tears, she knows that nothing so dreadful has ever happened to her before, and that her predicament is hopeless. Then, through her weeping, she becomes aware of somebody standing beside her: a short, stocky Frenchman in a black Homburg hat. And so begins the great love affair of Lindas life, a love which transforms her existence, breaking her free from the dark and dreary confines of her English past to release her into perfect happiness in Paris, the most beautiful city on earth.