Nancy Freeman-MitfordCBE (28 November 1904– 30 June 1973), known as Nancy Mitford, was an English novelist, biographer and journalist. One of the renowned Mitford sisters and one of the "Bright Young People" on the London social scene in the inter-war years, she is best remembered for her novels about upper-class life in England and France and for her sharp and often provocative wit. She also established a reputation for herself as a writer of popular historical biographies.
Mitford enjoyed a privileged childhood as the eldest daughter of the Hon. David Freeman-Mitford, later 2nd Baron Redesdale. Educated privately, she had no training as a writer before publishing her first novel in 1931. This early effort and the three that followed it created little stir; it was her two semi-autobiographical postwar novels, The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love in a Cold Climate (1949), that established her reputation. Mitford had been unhappily married since 1933 to Peter Rodd and formed a liaison during the Second World War with a Free French officer, Gaston Palewski, who became the love of her life, although the pair were never a formal couple. After the war Mitford settled in France and lived there for the rest of her life, maintaining social contact with her many English friends through letters and regular visits.
"To fall in love you have to be in the state of mind for it to take, like a disease."
"I love children, especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away"
"An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off; it may run about in a lively way, but in fact it is dead"
"Surely a King who loves pleasure is less dangerous than one who loves glory?"
""Twenty-three and a quarter minutes past," Uncle Matthew was saying furiously, "in precisely six and three-quarter minutes the damned fella will be late"
"Always be civil to the girls, you never know who they may marry' is a aphorism which has saved many an English spinster from being treated like an Indian widow."
"All the heat there was seemed to concentrate in the Hons' cupboard, which was always stifling. Here we would sit, huddled up on the slatted shelves, and talk for hours about life and death."
"I have only ever read one book in my life, and that is White Fang. It's so frightfully good I've never bothered to read another."
"I Love children, especially when they cry for then someone takes them away."
"An aristocracy in a republic is like a chicken whose head has been cut off; it may run about in a lively way, but in fact it is dead."
... jackets, abandoning her mainstream mash-up presenting persona and channelling a hyper-stern Anne Robinson, with added Morticia Addams and a dash of a minor character from a Nancy Mitford novel.
It is hard to beat a good nostalgic war film at this time of year ... And it seems right for another reason ... I am very much with Nancy Mitford’s heroine LindaRadlett, in Mitford’s gloriously English novel, The PursuitOf Love ... Racism is everywhere ... .
Admittedly, she looks amazing ... And yet all I could think on seeing the photos was ... In 1923, when Nancy Mitford was presented, she had to wee in a chamber pot behind a screen at the palace because those were the only facilities provided ... Read More ... .
At the wheel of her 1972Citroën DS, she ran into trouble ...Rosamund Pike is keen on old cars ... Pike did not win ... Efi Gousi ... While there she appeared in a few television shows, including Love in a Cold Climate, a dramatisation of the Nancy Mitford novel ... .
It proved impossible to crack ... ----- ... ----- ... ‘Oh no ... Descended from a prominent Roman Catholic family who had a long history of clerical office, he was the nephew of the English biographer and journalist Nancy Mitford and a godson of author Evelyn Waugh.
Rejoice. British class distinctions are finally crumbling ... But forget all that ... It’s amazing that U and non-U, the 1950s set of linguistic class signifiers popularised by Nancy Mitford, is still knocking around ... EmmaBeddington is a Guardian columnist ... .
Puzzles. Challenge yourself with today’s puzzles. Crossword. Polygon. Sudoku. The people have spoken ... Turns out if you’re older you’re inclined to say loo ... Nancy Mitford would be horrified, although I am too, to be frank ... INTERVIEW ... .
According to a new study published in the journal English World-Wide, Nancy Mitford’s “U and Non U”, the most famous account of social distinctions in everyday speech, has been made redundant.
Since the writer Nancy Mitford codified the U and non-U (upper class and non-upper class) terms in the 1950s, it has been taken as fact that upper classes use loos, sofas and napkins while their ...
Nancy Mitford would be appalled ... A study has shown that the “U and Non-U” linguistic boundaries that Mitford famously popularised in the 1950s have crumbled ... UK. Science. Related articles ... Will Kelleher ... PROMOTED CONTENT. .
‘And they lived happily ever after ... Most popular ... When I was in hospital for weeks at a time, I read new books, though more slowly and with less concentration than usual, but when I could not cope I turned to Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love ... .
Exactly 70 years ago, the witty aristocrat Nancy Mitford published an article in an intellectual magazine in which she made a reference to an academic paper, U And Non-U ... Mitford took his argument one ...
