The Pursuit of Love: Now a major series on BBC and Prime Video directed by Emily

Description: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, Zoë Heller Longing for love, obsessed with weddings and sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the lookout for a perfect lover. But finding Mr Right is much harder than any of the sisters had thought. Linda must suffer marriage first to a stuffy Tory MP and then to a handsome and humourless communist, before finding real love in war-torn Paris... FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Reissued on the 70th anniversary of its first publication by Hamish HamiltonObsessed with sex! said Jassy, theres nobody so obsessed as you, Linda. Why if I so much as look at a picture you say Im a pygmalionist.In the end we got far more information out of a book called Ducks and Duck Breeding.Ducks can only copulate, said Linda, after studying this for a while, in running water. Good luck to them.Oh the tedium of waiting to grow up! Longing for love, obsessed with weddings and sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the look out for the perfect lover. But finding Mr Right is much harder than any of the sisters thought. Linda must suffer marriage first to a stuffy Tory MP and then to a handsome and humorousless communist before finding real love in war-torn Paris . . .The Pursuit of Love is one of the funniest, sharpest novels about love and growing up ever written. Notes Reissued with a new introduction by Zoe Heller. Author Biography Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London, the eldest child of the second Baron Redesdale. She had written four novels, including Wigs on the Green (1935), before the success of The Pursuit of Love in 1945, which she followed with Love in a Cold Climate (1949), The Blessing (1951) and Dont Tell Alfred (1960). She also wrote four works of biography. Nancy Mitford was awarded the CBE in 1972. Review Utter, utter bliss * Daily Mail *A dazzling comic delight * Fiona Wilson, The Times, Saturday Review *The storys genius lies in its wicked humour, which remains relentlessly uplifting even as the Blitz begin to smash all the hopes of that pre-war arcadia * Olivia Laing, The Guardian *Too spiky and intelligent, I think, to qualify as an altogether cosy read [...] beneath the brittle surface of Mitfords wit there is something infinitely more melancholy at work - something that is apt to snag you and pull you into its dark undertow when you are least expecting it * Zoë Heller, The Telegraph *Nancy Mitford taught the wonderful truth that laughter can see you through the darkest hours of your life * Daily Mail *The Millennial faint-hearted will be appalled by Mitfords depiction of class and gender. But Mitfords triumph is that, as the Radletts live and laugh and cry, we [cry] with them * Julie Parsons, The Irish Times *In her novels Nancy mastered her life, making everyone who was different or difficult into figures of mirth, moving only among the aristocracy, and infusing the world with a spirit of lazy, delightful romance * Natasha Walter, The Independent * Promotional The Pursuit of Loveis one of the funniest and sharpest novels about love and growing up ever written. Review Text Utter, utter bliss Review Quote "Mitford, describing in a tart and easy fashion the diverting activities of a titled English family, is mocking, good-tempered, and very funny." -- The New Yorker Promotional "Headline" Reissued on the 70th anniversary of its first publication by Hamish Hamilton Excerpt from Book Chapter One There is a photograph in existence of Aunt Sadie and her six children sitting round the tea-table at Alconleigh. The table is situated, as it was, is now, and ever shall be, in the hall, in front of a huge open fire of logs. Over the chimney-piece plainly visible in the photograph, hangs an entrenching tool, with which, in 1915, Uncle Matthew had whacked to death eight Germans one by one as they crawled out of a dug-out. It is still covered with blood and hairs, an object of fascination to us as children. In the photograph Aunt Sadies face, always beautiful, appears strangely round, her hair strangely fluffy, and her clothes strangely dowdy, but it is unmistakably she who sits there with Robin, in oceans of lace, lolling on her knee. She seems uncertain what to do with his head, and the presence of Nanny waiting to take him away is felt though not seen. The other children, between Louisas eleven and Matts two years, sit round the table in party dresses or frilly bibs, holding cups or mugs according to age, all of them gazing at the camera with large eyes opened wide by the flash, and all looking as if butter would not melt in their round pursed-up mouths. There they are, held like flies in the amber of that moment--click goes the camera and on goes life; the minutes, the days, the years, the decades, taking them further and further from that happiness and promise of youth, from the hopes Aunt Sadie must have had for them, and from the dreams they dreamed for themselves. I often think there is nothing quite so poignantly sad as old family groups. When a child I spent my Christmas holidays at Alconleigh, it was a regular feature of my life, and, while some of them slipped by with nothing much to remember, others were distinguished by violent occurrences and had a definite character of their own. There was the time, for example, when the servants wing caught fire, the time when my pony lay on me in the brook and nearly drowned me (not very nearly, he was soon dragged off, but meanwhile bubbles were said to have been observed). There was drama when Linda, aged ten, attempted suicide in order to rejoin an old smelly Border Terrier which Uncle Matthew had had put down. She collected and ate a basketful of yew-berries, was discovered by Nanny and given mustard and water to make her sick. She was then "spoken to" by Aunt Sadie, clipped over the ear by Uncle Matthew, put to bed for two days and given a Labrador puppy, which soon took the place of the old Border in her affections. There was much worse drama when Linda, aged twelve, told the daughters of neighbours, who had come to tea, what she supposed to be the facts of life. Lindas presentation of the "facts" had been so gruesome that the children left Alconleigh howling dismally, their nerves permanently impaired, their future chances of a sane and happy sex life much reduced. This resulted in a series of dreadful punishments, from a real beating, administered by Uncle Matthew, to luncheon upstairs for a week. There was the unforgettable holiday when Uncle Matthew and Aunt Sadie went to Canada. The Radlett children would rush for the newspapers every day hoping to see that their parents ship had gone down with all aboard; they yearned to be total orphans--especially Linda, who saw herself as Katie in What Katie Did,the reins of the household gathered into small but capable hands. The ship met with no iceberg and weathered the Atlantic storms, but meanwhile we had a wonderful holiday, free from rules. But the Christmas I remember most clearly of all was when I was fourteen and Aunt Emily became engaged. Aunt Emily was Aunt Sadies sister, and she had brought me up from babyhood, my own mother, their youngest sister, having felt herself too beautiful and too gay to be burdened with a child at the age of nineteen. She left my father when I was a month old, and subsequently ran away so often, and with so many different people, that she became known to her family and friends as the Bolter; while my fathers second, and presently his third, fourth and fifth wives, very naturally had no great wish to look after me. Occasionally one of these impetuous parents would appear like a rocket, casting an unnatural glow upon my horizon. They had great glamour, and I longed to be caught up in their fiery trails and be carried away, though in my heart I knew how lucky I was to have Aunt Emily. By degrees, as I grew up, they lost all charm for me; the cold grey rocket cases mouldered where they had happened to fall, my mother with a major in the South of France, my father, his estates sold up to pay his debts, with an old Rumanian countess in the Bahamas. Even before I was grown up much of the glamour with which they had been surrounded had faded, and finally there was nothing left, no foundation of childish memories to make them seem any different from other middle-aged people. Aunt Emily was never glamorous but she was always my mother, and I loved her. At the time of which I write, however, I was at an age when the least imaginative child supposes itself to be a changeling, a Princess of Indian blood, Joan of Arc, or the future Empress of Russia. I hankered after my parents, put on an idiotic face which was intended to convey mingled suffering and pride when their names were mentioned, and thought of them as engulfed in deep, romantic, deadly sin. Linda and I were very much preoccupied with sin, and our great hero was Oscar Wilde. "But what did he do?" "I asked Fa once and he roared at me--goodness, it was terrifying. He said: If you mention that sewers name again in this house Ill thrash you, do you hear, damn you? So I asked Sadie and she looked awfully vague and said: Oh, duck, I never really quite knew, but whatever it was was worse than murder, fearfully bad. And, darling, dont talk about him at meals, will you?" "We must find out." "Bob says he will, when he goes to Eton." "Oh, good! Do you think he was worse than Mummy and Daddy?" "Surely he couldnt be. Oh, you are so lucky to have wicked parents." Details ISBN0241974682 Author Zoë Heller Year 2015 ISBN-10 0241974682 ISBN-13 9780241974681 Media Book Publication Date 2015-11-26 Pages 224 Publisher Penguin Books Ltd Imprint Penguin Books Ltd Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom Death 1973 DEWEY 823.912 Format Paperback Language English UK Release Date 2015-11-26 Subtitle Now a major series on BBC and Prime Video directed by Emily Mortimer and starring Lily James and Andrew Scott Birth 1949 Affiliation Professor Emeritus of Strategic Studies, University of Reading Position Professor Emeritus of Strategic Studies Qualifications Ph.D. Audience General NZ Release Date 2016-01-31 AU Release Date 2016-01-31 Alternative 9780241976784 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:95041274;

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