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

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Briefly, then, for that reader: teenage Linda Radlett lives in “the very definition of emptiness” (north Norfolk). Also, any book that manages to make me laugh out loud (or snort) multiple times, has a special place in my heart.

I felt genuinely traumatised with the abrupt, matter-of-fact manner in which the story was tossed aside. 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. For a reader unfamiliar with Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, India Knight’s reimagining would be a perfect comfort read: the kind of book you take into the bath and keep reading even when the water has gone cold, a one-sitting dark-at-four joy. Inevitably, Linda eventually rebels against her sheltered childhood, running away to London to be a model and then jumping into a duo of ill-fated marriages, which is Knight’s cue to skewer certain quarters of the British ruling class.

To do the book justice, it's nicely written and zips along at a fine pace, which it what you'd expect from such an insubstantial piece of fluff.

This is perhaps because Knight, free from the innate pressures of the roman à clef, has enough distance for clarity. Linda's strict, former rock star father terrifies any potential suitors away, while her bohemian mother, wafting around in silver jewellery, answers Linda's urgent questions about love with upsettingly vivid allusions to animal husbandry. Es ist wunderbar amüsant, die Charaktere wurden auf überzeugende Weise in die Gegenwart transportiert!Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.

Tony Kroesig is the son of a UKIP-supporting Lord Bamford type, and Christian Talbot is a self-obsessed OE minor novelist with a fine line in poverty tourism. I thought the original might be coming out of copyright next year, when it’s 50 years since Nancy died, but apparently it’s 70 years after her death when it expires so it’s not for that reason.Last year, purists recoiled from Emily Mortimer’s (in my mind terrific) BBC adaptation of the author’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love. It's beautifully and meticulously done, echoing the detail of the original plot as far as feasible, but with contemporary twists . These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. This blog hosts a selection of articles written from 2013 to the present, mostly focusing on my book reviews, which are uploaded frequently.