Product Description

In spring 1956, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire - youngest of the six legendary Mitford sisters - invited the writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor to visit Lismore Castle, the Devonshires' house in Ireland. This halcyon visit sparked off a deep friendship and a lifelong exchange of sporadic but highly entertaining letters.

There can rarely have been such contrasting styles: Debo, unashamed philistine and self-professed illiterate (though suspected by her friends of being a secret reader), darts from subject to subject while Paddy, polyglot, widely read prose virtuoso, replies in the fluent, polished manner that has earned him recognition as one of the finest writers in the English language.

Prose notwithstanding, the two friends have much in common: a huge enjoyment of life, youthful high spirits, warmth, generosity and lack of malice. There are glimpses of President Kennedy's inauguration, weekends at Sandringham, stag hunting in France, filming with Errol Flynn in French Equatorial Africa and, above all, of life at Chatsworth, the great house that Debo spent much of her life restoring, and of Paddy in the house that he and his wife Joan designed and built on the southernmost peninsula of Greece.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10674 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review

'Packed with gossip, creaky jokes and gadding about...all but the most inverted of snobs will enjoy a cheery time in these pages'

(The Independent, Christopher Hirst )

‘Highly engaging exchanges of mutual joie de vivre’

(The Times )

'Altogether delicious . . . Charlotte Mosley's editing of these letters is erudite, mischievous and unflawed'

(Sunday Telegraph )

‘Part of the charm of this impeccably edited correspondence is a sense of the lacrimae rerum, of a vanished world of high romance’

(Daily Telegraph )

‘This marvellous correspondence celebrates two of the most important things in the world, courage and friendship’

(Spectator )

'Sparkling'

(The Times )

‘An impressive array of personalities and dramas’

(Good Book Guide )

‘Captivating collection ... Deborah’s life [is] brilliantly encapsulated –and parodied- in her more  succinct letters ... their exchanges achieve the goal of all good correspondents: to bring out  the best in one another’

(Anglo Hellenic Review )

‘Last autumn’s literary non-fiction hit’

(Bookseller )

‘Highly entertaining . . . as full of fizz and conviviality as a glass of champagne’

(Metro )

'The effect is intensely touching’

(The London Review of Books )

'Age never withers the mischievous, bantering pleasure of these letters'

(Observer Review )

 ‘Bursting with wit and conviviality’

(The Observer )

'Highly engaging exchanges of mutual joie de vivre’

(The Times )

'Highly entertaining...as full of fizz and conviviality as a glass of champagne'

(Metro )

‘Last autumn’s literary non-fiction hit’

(Bookseller )

'The effect is intensely touching,’

(The London Review of Books )

'Age never withers the mischievous, bantering pleasure of these letters,'

(Observer Review )

‘Celebrates everything positive about life and friendship’

(Independent on Sunday )

About the Author

Charlotte Mosley lives in Paris and has worked as a publisher and journalist.  She is the editor of Love from Nancy, The Letters of Nancy Mitford, The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh and The Mitfords, Letters Between Six Sisters.

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Customer Reviews

attraction of opposites

A cheerful correspondence over many years between 2 very different characters. Devonshire, unintellectual countrywoman (hardly ever reads a book)but inheritor of Mitford wit. Leigh Fermor, highly intelligent, manically active, immersed in history and arcane knowledge. Their high society circles of acquaintance largely overlap and they both know most of the Establishment luminaries. Sometimes the "luvvies" gossip is off-putting but they are both such lively, active people that their letters are a joy.

Two entertaining characters correspond about their different lives.

The amusing surviving Mitford sister recounts her day to day life against Paddy Leigh Fermor' scholarly & sometime military mind. The result is entertainment of the best. Having read the book thro' it then becomes a joy to dip in & out.

A delight
These letters provide a fascinating look at the very interesting lives of the writers, but also a snapshot showing how history effects the lives of people who are involved with it. I was sorry to reach the last page and sad that this kind of chronicle of an age will not come again in an era of e.mail. Readers will lose as a result.