I’m currently reading ‘The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh’ (Penguin, 1996. Ed. Charlotte Mosley) and am loving it. There’s a lot of footnotes, so it’s taking me quite some time to work my way though, hence the silence. I promise to blog more soon.
I am completely fascinated by the Mitford family and have been for as long as I can remember, but it’s been a while since I’ve read anything by one of them. Nancy was a writer, and wrote thousands of letters, and absolutely cracks me up. Her correspondence with Evelyn is very funny, and tells so much of history from a very social and personal perspective. This book has got me so interested in the period they were writing in (so far 1939 – 1951). It’s fascinating that two people could know so many influential people from such a period of history – so many politicians and cultural game-changers. I don’t think you could experience life in the same way now.
It’s also got me really excited by letter-writing, a beautiful and dying art. I’m going to endeavour to write more, because it seems such a shame to lose it. Most forms of communication now just don’t quite have the romance. I’m also completely wrapped up in the grandiose of their language. It’s so much more formal, and regal than speech we use now, and I love it.There’s so much more variety, and they paint pictures so much more vividly for it.
Anyway, more on this soon. J’adore.
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