Life in a Cold Climate: Nancy Mitford The Biography

'The book is a gem: fresh, intelligent and assured' Sunday Times
Nancy Mitford was, in the words of her sister Lady Diana Mosley, 'very, very complex'. Her biographies and novels, her journalism, and the vast body of letters to her family, friends such as Evelyn Waugh, and to the great love of her life, Gaston Palewski, all tell an intriguing story. Drawing from these, as well as conversations with Mitford's two surviving sisters and colleagues, prize-winning author Laura Thompson has fashioned a portrait of a contradictory and courageous woman.
Thompson approaches her subject with wit, perspicacity and affection, while eschewing clichés about the eccentricities of the Mitford clan. Life in a Cold Climate is full of the sound of Mitfordian laughter; but tells also the often paradoxical and complex story beneath the smiling and ever elegant façade.
'A brilliant study, original, perceptive, passionate' Selina Hastings
'Well-nigh perfect' Diana Mosley, Literary Review

Laura Thompson is the award-winning author of Life in a Cold Climate: A Biography of Nancy Mitford; A Different Class of Murder: the Story of Lord Lucan and Rex V. Edith Thompson: A Tale of Two Murders.