Nancy Mitford: a biography

National Review, March 27, 1987 by H.W. Crocker, III

Though a leading socialite, Nancydisliked nightclubs and late hours; though a "bright young thing' surrounded by cynics and homosexuals, she enjoyed domesticity and wanted most of all to be happily married; and though she put these words in Lady Montdore's mouth in Love in a Cold Climate meaning them to be funny-- "I think I may say we put India on the map. Hardly any of one's friends in England had ever even heard of India before we went there you know' (which is misquoted by Selina Hastings, incidentally)--she actually believed in them.

Such tensions and contradictions arethe sorts of things that should vouchsafe the reader a greater appreciation of individuals and individuality. But if that sounds too didactic, let me assure the reader that Selina Hastings's book is highly entertaining, gracefully written, and, well, "a gem of a biography.'