Nancy Mitford Part IV

While Polly has moved abroad, Linda has left her husband. She met a young man living near the Kroesigs' home. He is Christian Talbot, a left wing but upper class man. Fanny worries that Linda has made a mistake again, as Christian, while a good man, is not interested in personal relationships. He is not selfish and stupid like Tony Kroesig, but he won't be able to give Linda the love that she craves. Fanny sees quite a lot of Cedric, but overall she is happy leading a quiet life with her husband and 2 children... After a year or so, Polly and Boy decide to come back to England. She is pregnant and he is writing one of his snob books about an English duke, and they open up their modest estate, Silkins and go to live there. Fanny realises that Polly is no longer in love with Boy, that she soon became bored with him..Davey tells her that Boy is now getting interested in boys rather than girls. Fanny is shocked, but is pleased to see Polly again. They meet up while Polly is settling into her home, and she ignores Boy who is busy with his book about Edwardian dukes. Lady Montdore does not meet up with Polly. She has become a dropper in to Fanny's house, and Fanny does not have the toughness to snub her. Matt, the younger son of Lord Alconleigh runs away from school to go to fight in Spain on the Red side.

Nancy Mitford Novels Part III

Polly comes to stay at Alconleigh, after a big row with her mother, who insists that she will be cut out of her father's will if she goes on with what Lady Montdore sees as a disgusting marriage. Her mohter is positively crazy with rage. Sadie, Lady Alconleigh is willing to help her neighbour by taking Polly in for a bit. She tries to talk Polly out of her determination to marry Boy. Polly says that Boy has a small income and he makes money with his coffee table books. Since Lord Montdore cannot leave her Hampton, she does not care about the family fortune. Lady Montdore is furious. Davey talks to Boy and realises that Boy is helpless in this situation. He flirted with her as a young girl and did not realise that he had made her fall for him. He is inclined to feel sorry for Boy, even if he is a snob and a letch. Polly and Boy marry, in a quiet ceremony, and go to live on the continent, where it's cheaper. Lady Montdore is very lonely without Boy and Polly but she won't admit that she has lost her only child and her former lover. However, the family have reached out to Cedric Hampton, who was born in Canada. He is Lord Montdore's cousin and heir to the Earldom. His father had lived abroad for most of his life, and the Montdores knew nothing about him. They had ignored his existence, before, because they had Polly, but now she's gone. Cedric's parents are dead and he has left Canada, which he hated, and is living in Paris. He is delighted to be offered a home at Hampton, and soon becomes fond of Lady Montdore and Fanny. He is artistic and enjoys the beautiful things in the house. He is also flamboyantly gay. Lord Montdore decides to leave him his fortune, since Lady Montdore does not want the money to go to Polly.

Nancy Mitford Part II

Fanny marries Alfred Wincham, and they move to a small house in Oxford. Linda's marriage goes wrong almost immediately. She finds Tony's middle class ways irritating and he finds her frivolity annoying. She realises how selfish he is. She becomes pregnant, and has a daughter Moira, but she does not care for the child. Fanny becomes pregnant, and sees less of Linda, who is living in London and busy with a social life. Polly's romantic life takes a strange twist. Lady Montdore is a bossy domineering woman who has been having an affair with Boy Dougdale, a writer, who is married to Lord Montdore's sister, Patricia. Boy is a writer of coffee table books about the upper classes and a snob. He and Lady Montdore are both super snobbish. Boy also likes to flirt and fool around with young girls and the Radlett girls have often been fondled by him... though they laugh at it. Then he took up with his sister in law and had a long standing relationship with her. But Patricia is tired out from her not very happy marriage, and she gets ill and dies. Boy has always been an unfaithful husband, but Patricia had been loyal to him. Now, suddenly, Polly tells her mother that she has proposed to Boy, and they are now engaged. Polly thinks that Boy is in love with her, but the truth is that he does not want to marry her. He is afraid because he knows it will causes a terrible rift between him and Lord and Lady Montdore and a lot of his society friends will be shocked. But Polly is beautiful and he is a snob, and he cannot extricate himself...Davey tells the Radletts that while Boy did wrong in arousing Polly, as a young girl, he did not expect that she'd fall in love with him.

Nancy Mitford novels

Nancy's 2 best known novels are covering the same time period and some of the same characters. The chief character is Linda Radlett, and her cousin, Fanny Logan is the narrator of the books. Fanny is mousier than the lively eccentric Radletts. Linda believes in love and longs to be be grown up and to marry. But her family are not that rich and she has led a restricted life, in the country, without much mixing in "Society". She has taken a certain interest in the arts, so as to fit in with the arty upper class set but her father is a backwoods peer. He likes living in the country and doesn't approve of education for girls. He is grumpy and unsociable and rarely visits even country neighbours. Fanny has had a better education, having been brought up by her spinster aunt, Emily. Her aunt is more modern minded than the Radlett parents. Fanny falls in love with Alfred Wincham, an Oxford don, who is intelligent and kind, and who has very little money. But they get engaged and plan to marry. Lady Polly Hampton is a neighbour of the Radlett family. Her father has a large estate, Hampton. She is the only child of Lord and Lady Montdore, who have served the crown in India.. Polly is very beautiful, but seems dull and shy. Her domineering mother is upset that her beautiful daughter does not seem to attract suitors. She has put all her hopes on getting Polly married to someone rich and well bred. She herself is not faithful to her husband, but their marriage has been OK for most of their lives. Lady Montdore is irritated that the Radletts' daughters, with less money and beauty and less mixing in society than Polly has had, have gotten husbands as soon as they left the schoolroom. Linda met Tony Kroesig, the son of a wealthy banker, of German origin, and the couple fell in love. Her parents were not happy at the idea of them marrying, and neither were his parents. His father sends him off to America for a time but the young couple are determined and the families give in. They get married. Linda's sister Louisa has found a husband in her first season.

Nancy Mitford

Nancy was a socialite who started writing in the 1920s and 30s and became famous for her books about her high society family, I hope to blog about Love in a Cold Climate and Pursuit of Love, shortly

Beds and Blue Jeans by Nadine Sutton

Beds and Blue Jeans is a story, novella length about a young bar singer in Nashville in the 2010s.. who has found himself being pursued by a lot of lady fans. He has a girlfriend who has just had his baby, but the relationship with Patty isn't going too well. Sam lets himself be caught by various pretty ladies but can he learn to appreciate Patty and settle down with her and their baby. On Amazon.

RIP Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe died in her home, 62 years ago today. She had taken an overdose of drugs. Her life had been difficult from birth, to a mentally disturbed mother and an absent father. She was reared in foster homes and orphanages and married young to find a home. She worked in a factory when her husband was away at the war, and began to get noticed for her good looks. She became ambitious to get on in films - and had genuine talent as well as beauty. But she became addicted to pills and had unhappy love affairs including one with President Kennedy.