‘Oh yes, I see – he did very kindly offer. Only think, Fanny, two short weeks ago I would have accepted.’ She shuddered.
‘But, darling, I don’t quite understand. I thought you said you were engaged?’
‘Yes. I’m engaged to Jacques Oudineau.’
1. Nancy would not allow the novel to be republished during her lifetime, on the basis that what was amusing at the time wasn’t amusing later. ‘We were younger and high-spirited then,’ she wrote to Evelyn Waugh in the context of her husband Peter Rodd’s fl irtation with Mosley’s Blackshirts, ‘and didn’t know about Buchenwald.’
1. Wasps’ nest.
2. Birch tree.
3. Prepare.
4. Cross beam.
1. Brave.
2. Mouth.
3. Kilt.
4. Little stool.
5. Cried, bewailed.
6. Silk.
7. Willow tree.
1 In Love in a Cold Climate
FIG TREE
Published by the Penguin Group
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Highland Fling first published by Thornton Butterworth 1931
Christmas Pudding first published by Thornton Butterworth 1932
Wigs on the Green first published by Thornton Butterworth 1935
Pigeon Pie first published by Hamish Hamilton 1940
The Pursuit of Love first published by Hamish Hamilton 1945
Love in a Cold Climate first published by Hamish Hamilton 1949
The Blessing first published by Hamish Hamilton 1951
Don’t Tell Alfred first published by Hamish Hamilton 1960
This selection first published by Fig Tree 2011
Text copyright © the Estate of Nancy Mitford, 1931, 1932, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1949, 1951, 1960
Introduction copyright © India Knight, 2011
Illustration By Lab Partners
All rights reserved
The moral right of the introducer has been asserted
These are works of fiction, and all characters are drawn from the author’s imagination. Care has been taken to avoid the use of names or titles belonging to living persons, and if any such names or titles have been used, this has been done inadvertently and no reference to such person or persons is intended
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book
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ISBN: 978–0–241–95732–5
