REAL LIVES AT The Mitford files
How wild child Nancy and her sisters inspired Pursuit of Love
Eyes shut, dancing with champagne glass in hand, Lily James is a picture of 1930s glamour in the new Sunday-night BBC drama, The Pursuit of Love, a tale of hedonism, romance and high society.
The series is pure escapism, adapted from The Pursuit of Love, a novel written by Nancy Mitford about her own colourful life with her sisters, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah.
Lily says: “It’s a wonderful celebration of the Mitford sisters. Nancy wrote this book about her life, her sisters and how they grew up. I think it’s fascinating and they were brilliant.”
Lily plays Linda Radlett and the series follows her wild life and romances.
Author and historian Lyndsy Spence says: “Nancy actually based Linda on several of her sisters. It wasn’t just her. She borrowed things from their life.”
The Mitford sisters were a force to be reckoned with, among them a novelist, a socialist, a fascist who was friends with Adolf Hitler, and a duchess.
Born between 1904 and 1920, the sisters lived through two world wars and witnessed some of the most significant events of the 20th century.
Lyndsy, author of The Mitford Girls’ Guide to Life, says: “Nancy, Pamela and Diana mixed with the Bright Young Things and experienced London’s high society at the height of its glamour.
“They were young adults at a time when one could hop from foreign holiday to country manor on very little money. It did help if one was part of the inner circle of the British aristocracy.”
The Pursuit of Love follows Linda and her cousin, Fanny, played by Emily Beecham, as they hunt for an ideal husband. Their friendship is put to the test when they choose different paths, Fanny settling for a steady life and Linda running wild.
There was no cousin Fanny in real life, but Nancy did have a troubled love life and a rebellious streak.
In 1933, she married Peter Rodd, a man dubbed “a terrible bore” by her family. He inspired the character Tony Kroesig, played by Freddie Fox.
Rodd gambled away much of Nancy’s fortune at the start of their marriage and, even though they weren’t divorced until 1957, they led very separate lives.
The love of Nancy’s life was Gaston Palewski, a French diplomat and Charles de Gaulle’s right-hand man, who stole her heart when she was 37.
He was the inspiration for the character Fabrice de Sauveterre, played by Assaad Bouab in the series.
Palewski and Nancy met at a party in London in 1942. They hit it off and Nancy followed him to Paris and settled there.
They had a long and complex relationship which caused Nancy a great deal of pain. She once wrote: “To fall in love you have to be in the state of mind for it to take, like a disease.”
Womaniser Palewski left her heartbroken when he wed somebody else.
Uncle Matthew, played by Dominic West, is based on Nancy’s father Lord Redesdale. Awkwardly, given that last year Dominic and Lily were pictured looking cosy in Rome, his
character tells Linda: “an adulterous woman is the most disgusting thing there is”. Dominic has since posed with wife Catherine FitzGerald, saying “Our marriage is strong”. And Lily has a new boyfriend, rocker Michael Shuman.
Dominic says of his character: “Uncle Matthew is quite a frightening patriarchal figure. Pretty much every scene I’m in I’m shouting at someone, but because he fought in the first world war he particularly hates the Germans.
“There’s an entrenching tool hung
LOVELY AND BUBBLY Lily James playing Linda Radlett on the wall which reminds him of how he killed 10 Germans in a row.”
Aunt Sadie, played by Dolly Wells, appears as a kinder version of Nancy’s mother Lady Redesdale.
The writer once said of her mother: “I liked her company; but I never loved her, for the evident reason that she never loved me.”
Nancy, who was unable to have children, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and died, aged 68, at home in Paris in 1973.
She will be remembered for her wicked sense of humour.
She once said: “I am sometimes bored by people, but never by life.”
The Pursuit of Love starts tomorrow on BBC One, 9pm.