Product Description

Drawing on Mitford's highly autobiographical early novels - as well as the biographies and novels of her more mature French period, her journalism and the vast body of letters to her sisters, lovers and friends such as Evelyn Waugh and Cyril Connolly - Thompson has put together a portrait of a courageous and contradictory woman: a woman who expressed anti-feminist views while living a life of financial and emotional independence; a woman who appeared quintessentially English but who was only wholly able to be herself once she moved to France; a woman who believed implacably that the best response to life's pain was laughter.

Approaching her subject with wit, perspicacity and huge affection, Laura Thompson, like Mitford, makes her serious points lightly. Eschewing clichés about the eccentricities of the Mitford clan (although nonetheless delving into the forces which politically polarised this family of 'contagiously and competitive' girls) Thompson analyses the contradictions and complexities at the heart of Nancy Mitford's life and work. (20040425)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #643439 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .74 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'[Laura Thompson] writes like a dream' (Nicholas Lezard )

'A sparkling and deliciously readable biography' (Mail on Sunday )

'Nancy's life was a puzzling set of contradictions, which have been sensitively unravelled by Thompson's detailed research into the life and work of the English novelist... Thompson, like Mitford, writes in a witty, humorous and touchingly personal manner' (Daily Express )

'Despite Thompson's passionate enthusiasm for Mitford, she offers a balanced and vivacious appraisal of a fascinating if mildly off-putting woman' (Observer )

'The force of her identification with her subject means that the books and the life's crises are inspected with unprecedented intensity and intelligence' (Guardian )

'A biography informed by so much love can't be carped at' (Independent on Sunday )

Mail on Sunday
'A sparkling and deliciously readable biography'

Observer
'Despite Thompson's passionate enthusiasm for Mitford, she offers a balanced and vivacious appraisal of a fascinating if mildly off-putting woman'