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Darling: A razor-sharp, gloriously funny retelling of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love

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Linda’s life story was rehashed to the smallest details, while the ‘I’, Franny, happily faded into the background, playing a secondhand character to Linda. The book is narrated by Frances, a cousin of the Radlett siblings, who has been sent to live with her Aunt Sadie and Uncle Matthew by her flaky mother.

There is an eclectic supporting cast who are excellently described – Davey and his gut health being very informative! A Little Luck is the story about the debilitating weight of lies, the messy line between bravery and cowardice, and the tragedies, big and small, that can ripple out from a single decisive event. Darling is also in that vein, that serves a heightened sense of reality in a decidedly upper-middle-class world, where worries are real but they are less where the money for the mortgage is going to come from and more will they be able to afford a junior suite at the Ritz in Paris, or will it have to be a mere double room. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. Franny, the narrator, is even less inconsequential than in the original; but Knight has so, so much fun with Uncle Matthew, Davey and Jassy, who were always the best characters anyway.In the author’s reimagining, Linda and her siblings grow up as “utter freaks” on the sprawling Alconleigh farm in north Norfolk. They also have their own codes, words, abbreviations – which as a mother of 4, and with our own family ‘things’, I totally understand. As crazy as things get, there are poignant moments scattered throughout which remind us that love is sometimes not what we imagined, but it can also come when we least expect it. Knight manages to be faithful to that beloved comfort read whilst updating the setting and characters to the present (albeit still in a bohemian-aristo thoroughly English way).

Together, Kit and Piglet are the picture of domestic bliss - effortless hosts, planning a covetable wedding . As well as Mitford, there is something of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s much-adored Cazalet Chronicles in here, plus elements of Eva Rice’s The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets and Barbara Trapido’s Brother of the More Famous Jack. Four of the six Mitford sisters were then still living, Pamela in the Cotswolds, Diana in Paris with her second. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.Or rather, she treats tiny little things as if they were international catastrophes and international catastrophes as if they were tiny little things. Uncle Matthew is now a retired rock-star who wants to protect his children from the tabloids; Lord Merlin, the effete neighbour in Mitford’s original, becomes fashion wunderkind Merlin Berners (a nod to Lord Berners, who inspired the character); Davey, obsessed with his health, fits seamlessly into the modern world: “‘I have a lot of time for the late Dr Mayr’s method.

I laughed out loud throughout, and thought that the characters were so impeccably described that I feel as though I know them. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. There were a lot of sidetracked and half-completed conversations - I could picture them all talking while eating, cleaning the house, watching TV and doing a million other things at the same time. The Pursuit of Love has been a favourite of mine for years and this re-telling is lovely, unlike the horrible television adaptation a couple of years ago.The plot remains very much the same; Knight has taken few liberties, but has recast the beloved characters and story in a modern mould.

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