It’s the BBC drama that’s filling the Sunday night void right now: The Pursuit of Love. The three-episode adaptation, starring Lily James and Andrew Scott, has everything a period drama enthusiast could hope for: cut-glass accents, fabulous fashion, stately homes and riotous behaviour. Based on Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel of the same name, the 60-minute instalments don’t stray far from the original plot. Driven by the determination of the headstrong Linda Radlett to find true love, we’re taken from her ancestral home of Alconleigh in Oxfordshire to the Pyrenees during the Spanish Civil War, and then on to the romantic setting of Paris. It’s thrilling, and told through the story’s narrator, Linda’s cousin Fanny Logan, who lives her life in complete contrast to her dear “best friend”.
As interest in Nancy Mitford peaks once again, British Vogue takes a closer look at the author whose family life was just as colourful as her writings.
Who was Nancy Mitford?
The successful author was born in 1904, the eldest of six Mitford sisters. Both of her parents, Lord Redesdale and Sydney Mitford, came from aristocratic backgrounds. Their grandfather, Conservative MP Thomas Gibson Bowles, founded Vanity Fair and The Lady magazine. They had one brother, called Tom, who was killed in the Second World War.
Growing up in her ancestral home of Alconleigh in Oxfordshire, Nancy beat off boredom by setting up secret societies with her sisters, who often clustered (as they do in the TV adaptation) in the linen cupboard to discuss sex, relationships and navigating life as women.
By the inter-war period she was considered by society as one of the “bright young things” on the London social scene.
Who were the Mitford sisters?
Collectively the siblings have long been a source of fascination. All six of them ended up pursuing different paths: Diana married Oswald Mosley and was briefly sent to prison for her fascist beliefs; Jessica eloped to Spain with her cousin and also became an author; Deborah became the Duchess of Devonshire; Unity shot herself upon hearing the UK would be going to war with Germany (she supported Hitler), and Pamela reared poultry. Nancy, of course, became a novelist. However, they were all prolific correspondents and letter writers.
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On writing
Nancy’s own family were all the muse she needed. The Pursuit of Love, written in three months, is partly autobiographical. “Nancy has written a novel full of exquisite detail of Mitford family life,” her friend and fellow writer, Evelyn Waugh, wrote in his diary after it had been published. Nancy is, of course, the witty heroine Linda Radlett, with the Mitford family being fictionally portrayed as the Radletts. It was the novel that set her star alight, maybe that’s why she returned to writing about her family in a fictional setting in Love in a Cold Climate and Don’t Tell Alfred.
During her lifetime, she wrote eight novels, several essays and countless letters; penned four biographies, and translated Madame de La Fayette’s anonymously published French novel La Princesse de Clèves.
On romance
Nancy’s romantic relationships weren’t as successful as her writings. First she was engaged to aristocrat Hamish St Clair Erskine for a few years, before he broke it off with her for another woman. In 1933, she married Peter Rodd. He was apparently hopeless with his finances, had numerous affairs, and was nicknamed “the Toll-gater” by her family, due to his habit of rambling on about uninteresting topics. Throughout their marriage, Nancy suffered several miscarriages, and eventually had to have a hysterectomy in 1941.
Who was the true love of her life? Gaston Palewski, commander of the Free French. Moving to Paris to be nearer to him in 1942, she based the character of Fabrice in The Pursuit of Love on him. Just like the fictional character, he was non-committal and ended up marrying someone else. However, the pair remained close, and they were in each other’s lives right up until her death in 1973.
The Pursuit of Love is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
