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Wigs on the Green

3.37 of 5 stars 3.37 · rating details · 332 ratings · 62 reviews

Nancy Mitford’s most controversial novel, unavailable for decades, is a hilarious satirical send-up of the political enthusiasms of her notorious sisters, Unity and Diana.

Written in 1934, early in Hitler’s rise, Wigs on the Green lightheartedly skewers the devoted followers of British fascism. The sheltered and unworldy Eugenia Malmain is one of the richest girls in Englan...more

Paperback, 177 pages

Published August 10th 2010 by Vintage (first published 1934)

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Jun 11, 2011 Hester rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: can-i-freshen-your-drink-guvner, read-in-2011

In the introduction to "Wigs on the Green", Charlotte Mosley writes the reasons for Nancy Mitford's third novel not being reissued until after her death. Nancy largely based the character of Eugenia on her sister Unity and she peppered her story with references of divorce which greatly upset her other sister Diana, who divorced her first husband to become the full time mistress of BUF leader Sir Oswald Mosley.

Despite the objections and injured feelings of her sisters, her novel was still publis...more In the introduction to "Wigs on the Green", Charlotte Mosley writes the reasons for Nancy Mitford's third novel not being reissued until after her death. Nancy largely based the character of Eugenia on her sister Unity and she peppered her story with references of divorce which greatly upset her other sister Diana, who divorced her first husband to become the full time mistress of BUF leader Sir Oswald Mosley.

Despite the objections and injured feelings of her sisters, her novel was still published. The story centers around two cads, Noel and Jasper. Noel's aunt has recently died and left him with a small inheritance which he decides to use in order to find an heiress to marry and live the rest of his days in leisure. He stupidly boasts of this fact to his scheming friend Jasper who says he will help, but only if Noel fronts his expenses.

What follows is a summer holiday in a small village where an heiress and child of scandal Eugenia Malmains has turned of age and is ripe for marriage. But when they find her they discover she is not in the lease bit interested in marriage or boys, her only passion in life is the Union Jackshirt movement and reclaiming England to its former glory through the means of fascism. Add to that a runaway bride her beautiful friend who has had it with her louse of a husband and the town's aging beauty and the stage is set for romance and mischief.

Eugenia is so passionate about her love of the Union Jackshirt movement that she's all mouth and action and absolutely lacks the tact or finesse needed to pass off the movement as anything other than what it is, a group of dangerous lunatics.

I found the lighthearted banter about Aryans somewhat uncomfortable, but then again I wasn't alive in 1935 living in a country on edge over the possibility of another war with Germany. I would like to have know what the readers of the novel in its day thought about the blase attitude presented within it's pages. Politics aside, Mitford takes sharp aim at how society was changing and how something as once scandalous as a divorce was starting to lose its shame factor.

One of the reasons why I love Nancy Mitford's work so much is because she captured and preserved an England that is quickly becoming lost in today's one world culture movement brought to you by technology.

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Jul 30, 2011 Ali added it · review of another edition

Being rather a fan of The Mitfords, and having read several biographies and letter collections as well as some of Nancy's later, better known novels, I was very curious when I heard Wigs on the Green was being re-issued. Having been out of print since not long after it first appeared, it is easy to why it caused such disquiet among her family. The introduction by Charoltte Moseley casts an interesting light upon this, and apparently Nancy took out 3 chapters which particularly mocked Sir Oswald...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Michael Ridpath rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is a not very good book from a very good writer. It was written in the 1930s and is a sub-Wodehousian jape featuring some bored aristocrats who descend on a village to try to pick up the local heiress, a seventeen-year-old Valkyrie named Eugenia. By coincidence an earl's daughter and her friend are hiding out in the same village from London scandal. Added to the mix is Mrs Lace, who is very beautiful, and a snob, but of a lower class than the other snobs in the book and is hence loathesome....more

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Jul 13, 2012 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-classics, clever

I am a huge fan of Nancy Mitford's novels, and enjoyed this as a fun summer distraction (when the temperature was 110 in my area!). That said, it was a bit too silly for my taste.

I love Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster;

I enjoy Evelyn Waugh's clever send-ups of British society;

I like wit and sarcasm, BUT this was troweled on a bit too thick for my taste. That doesn't mean I didn't chuckle, but somehow I expected more from Nancy Mitford.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is that one of the...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Oh those wacky fascists.

I read an article about Stella McCartney and she mentions about reading to one of her children the Mitford sisters letters and realizing she couldn't possibly tell her child what actually happened (one of the sisters, a Nazi and Hitler sympathizer tries to commit suicide after Britain declared war on Germany), so only said, “the English lady became very sad.”

I totally understood the reference as I had already started to read this book with an excellent introduction by Cha...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Jaylia3 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Nancy Mitford fans, including me, have been waiting a long time for this novel to be republished. Even used copies of WIGS ON THE GREEN have been hard to find, since after its release in 1935 it has only rarely been back in print. It became controversial because it was written at a time when Hitler was someone to laugh at, at least for Nancy, and it caused uproar in Nancy's family because Diana and Unity, her two passionately fascist-leaning sisters, did not like the way their beloved movement w...more Nancy Mitford fans, including me, have been waiting a long time for this novel to be republished. Even used copies of WIGS ON THE GREEN have been hard to find, since after its release in 1935 it has only rarely been back in print. It became controversial because it was written at a time when Hitler was someone to laugh at, at least for Nancy, and it caused uproar in Nancy's family because Diana and Unity, her two passionately fascist-leaning sisters, did not like the way their beloved movement was teasingly ridiculed. Nancy never let it be reprinted in her lifetime.

Nancy's determination to always find something ironic or funny in even the worst situations makes for wonderful reading and this book is no exception. Her humor manages to combine the social insights of Jane Austen with the laugh out loud absurdity of P. G. Wodehouse. In the aftermath of WWII, laughing at Hitler and his followers seemed about as inappropriate as basing a sitcom on Osama bin Laden, but part of the fascination of this book is its glimpse into the thoughts of a world before the catastrophes of the Holocaust.

In plot and tone WIGS ON THE GREEN is more similar to Nancy's first two frothy, fast-paced novels, HIGHLAND FLING and CHRISTMAS PUDDING, than it is to her later more serious novels, The PURSUIT OF LOVE and LOVE IN A COLD CLIMATE. Though the later novels are considered her masterpieces, to me they ramble and I enjoy her early, breathlessly funny books more. The political bent of WIGS ON THE GREEN gives it a greater heft than her other early novels, so fans of Nancy's later work may appreciate it more than her first, more purely fanciful books.

Most of the action in WIGS ON A GREEN takes place in and around the small village of Chalford where Anne-Marie Lace, the Local Beauty, fights boredom by assuming the role of patroness and muse for the town's meager, mercenary artist colony. Lady Marjorie is hiding out, thinly disguised as a commoner, with her friend Poppy while she tries to decide what to do about the duke she just jilted. Work-weary Noel Foster and his freeloading friend Jasper Aspect, based on Nancy's difficult husband Peter Rodd, are both scheming to marry the village's wealthy, politically obsessed heiress. This fanatic heiress, Eugenia Malmain, was inspired by Nancy's sister Unity, who by all accounts was an amazing and paradoxical force of nature.

When Nancy had Eugenia climb on an overturned washtub in Chalford's village green to exhort the locals to awake, and save the diminishing prestige of Britain by joining the Union Jackshirt party, it was before anyone knew about the tragedies to come. At the time Unity's obsession with Hitler and fascism just seemed like a great joke to Nancy, and she couldn't resist what she saw as good material for her book.

The chance to get a little more insight into Unity Valkyrie Mitford will make WIGS ON THE GREEN irresistible to fans of the Mitford sisters. Unity was a beautiful, intense, larger than life girl, who wore a pet snake around her neck at debutant balls. She became a great admirer of Hitler and through determination and persistence she managed to meet him and become part of his inner circle of friends. In her published letters to her sisters she refers to him as her dear sweet Führer. She shot herself in the head when England and Germany went to war, and died of her wounds in 1948.

As shocking as that all sounds, the people who knew Unity adored her. Jessica, the communist Mitford sister, spent most of her life refusing to speak to Diana, the Mitford sister married to British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley. But no one in the family, including Jessica, could ever bring themselves to cut Unity out of their life.

The five star rating is mainly for those fascinated by the Mitford sisters, but I would still give WIGS ON THE GREEN at least four stars, even for people who have never heard of the Mitford family.
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Apr 10, 2012 Don rated it 3 of 5 stars

A 1935 lampoon of British Unionists. Oddly prescient. Authoritarians are all fun and games until they ruin your pageant and garden party, or secretly divide a continent and then launch a world war. Although, I liked Love in a Cold Climate much more, this was, nevertheless, very much worth reading from a biographical perspective. Nancy and her sisters and their relationships and politics are a fascinating bit of history. It is also helpful in putting allegations against PG Wodehouse and Charles L...more

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Nov 29, 2010 Elaine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

Very very slight and bad Mitford -- not even very biting about Fascism -- much more a failed Wooster and Jeeves type romantic comedy. not a very funny one at that!

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Mar 06, 2012 Raquel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lady-book-club

This is a very funny, Wodehouse-like satire of the leisure class and their love affair with fascism in 1930s England. The book was suppressed for decades, partly because it alienated Nancy from her fascist sisters, Unity and Diana, and partly because its light treatment of fascism proved shockingly out-of-touch. For the latter reason, it is at times an uncomfortable read -- you feel guilty laughing at and even liking the spoiled, stupid yet highly amusing fascists in the novel. But Mitford's tra...more

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Aug 21, 2011 vard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I love Nancy Mitford's fiction. This is certainly not representative of Nancy at the top of her game, but considering that it was both inspired by her fascist sisters Unity and Diana, and censored to attempt to avoid alienating them completely, it's an entertaining read.

There were moments when I felt I could have been reading Wodehouse (I say that as a compliment, btw). It helps to read the introduction and have some other knowledge of the tangled family issues lurking in the b...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ashford_april, fiction

*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Ashford April (April 2013).

Noel Foster has come into some money. So, he decides to get his money to work for him. He will set himself up as a rich bachelor in order to entice an heiress his way. Therefore, the money just needs to hold out until his hoped for nuptials. Unfortunately, he has asked for the help of his friend Jasper Aspect, who is quite good at parting Noel from his money and making it disappear at a prodigious...more *Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during Ashford April (April 2013).

Noel Foster has come into some money. So, he decides to get his money to work for him. He will set himself up as a rich bachelor in order to entice an heiress his way. Therefore, the money just needs to hold out until his hoped for nuptials. Unfortunately, he has asked for the help of his friend Jasper Aspect, who is quite good at parting Noel from his money and making it disappear at a prodigious rate. So they remove themselves from London to Chalford, where the heiress Eugenia Malmain lives. Of course, she's a bit odd... in that she is a fanatic fascist and will convert anyone to the cause. Noel and Jasper quickly sign up in the hopes that it will bring them closer to the goal of Noel marrying Eugenia, his targeted heiress. Though soon the town has a rather wealthy lady on the run from her wedding day along with her best friend Poppy, who rather thinks Jasper is nicer then her own husband, as well as a few Private Eyes. If only Noel could fall for Eugenia and tie everything up, but sadly, he falls for the local beauty who is under the mistaken assumption that Noel is deposed royalty. In true British fashion, everything goes haywire and then ends with a fete. Yet, what are the fates of those involved?

When perusing Lauren Willig's list of books that inspired The Ashford Affair, I saw this little, long out of print book by Nancy Mitford among the other tomes. I turned around and looked at the little volume sitting on my shelf and it spoke to me. In fact, all the Nancy Mitford books got so chatty that I ended up doing my long thought of "Mitford March" because of their insistence. Also, as Lauren and Nancy have said, if I hadn't I would have probably been "too too shame-making" and my Mitford books would have run away. Oddly enough the book that inspired this idea ended up being the last read on my Mitford binge. Wigs on the Green is an interesting book, not just for the humor and the sly pokes at Nancy's family, but because of the controversy surrounding it. Because it deals with Fascism (in a humorous way) and pokes fun not only at Nancy's sister Unity, but also her sister Diana, and Diana's husband to be, Walter Mosley, the three darlings of Hitler. The book understandably infuriated quite a few members of her family and resulted in some long and awkward silences. Therefore, when her publisher requested the rights to reprint, Nancy denied them. Whether this was for her families sensibilities and a desire to restore the calm, or whether it was because she truly believed that Hitler's atrocities were so serious and horrid, that it was no longer a laughing matter, we will not know.

Thankfully when Nancy's back catalog was being re-released, Wigs on the Green was among those selected. I personally believe that it must have been family pressure that resulted in this books long absence, because I don't think that her excuse of not laughing at Hitler is valid. Yes, he was pure evil, yes, it wasn't a laughing matter... but the way to take away someone's power is to laugh at them, and Nancy loved to tease and everything was a laughing matter to her. Look to Harry Potter, and yes, it's an odd digression I admit. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Professor Lupin has the students face a boggart, which is a shape-shifter that takes the form of your worst nightmare. The spell that destroys the boggart, Riddikulus, forces the nightmare to take on a humorous form and is then destroyed by laughter. Proving, in the most simplest of terms, that by laughing at something or someone, you take away their power. This book should have been widely distributed to soldiers everywhere, so, her publisher was right on that count. Everyone needs a laugh, and a laugh at the enemies expense is all the better.

As for the laughing. This book was seriously funny, especially if you know a little British history. The send up of the Blackshirts with the Union Jackshirts with their absurd outfits and laughable fervor. I think that Eugenia is probably the only earnest believer in Fascism, while all the rest are just joining the bandwagon, and the fact that Eugenia has been so sheltered, her fervent belief is to be laughed at like that one friend you had in high school who spent all their time lecturing you on why Pepsi was evil because of various civil rights infringements that they could never explain properly to you, but insisted you join their boycott. And that is where the humor really lies, in the personality types Nancy is teasing. We have all known the oddly fervent and political, likewise, the ones who pretend to be to get in with them, those who would do anything for money, even marrying odd heiresses, those who revel in making merry hell for their friends, those who get the wrong end of the stick, and those who are totally potty... though perhaps not to the extent of living up a tree... Sure she was making fun of her family, but it wasn't just them, it's the personality they typified. We are all amusing, Nancy just had a way of making it apparent.(less)

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Nov 05, 2012 Mariano Hortal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, genre-classics

Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/trifulca-a-...

Con la escritora inglesa Nancy Mitford no hay lugar para el aburrimiento, pero por partida doble, ni con su vida ni con sus novelas. Era la primogénita de la familia Freeman-Mitford. Las hermanas de dicha familia fueron figuras muy conocidas en la sociedad de Inglaterra de su tiempo: Nancy era escritora; Pamela, aristócrata rural; Diana la fascista; Unity la nazi; Jessica la comunista y Deborah duquesa de Devonshire. Parecían salidas de una no...more Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/trifulca-a-...

Con la escritora inglesa Nancy Mitford no hay lugar para el aburrimiento, pero por partida doble, ni con su vida ni con sus novelas. Era la primogénita de la familia Freeman-Mitford. Las hermanas de dicha familia fueron figuras muy conocidas en la sociedad de Inglaterra de su tiempo: Nancy era escritora; Pamela, aristócrata rural; Diana la fascista; Unity la nazi; Jessica la comunista y Deborah duquesa de Devonshire. Parecían salidas de una novela y, de hecho, Nancy las inmortalizaría a su manera ya que varias de sus novelas tienen elementos autobiográficos.

Aunque aquí es principalmente conocida por su serie de novelas que reflejaron la vida de las clases altas de Inglaterra y Francia después de 1945 (A la caza del amor, Amor en Clima Frío, La Bendición, No se lo digas a Alfred). La novela que nos ocupa hoy es Trifulca a la vista que la escribió antes de las anteriormente mencionadas, en 1935, cuando el fascismo estaba en franca ascensión por toda Europa.

En la fantástica edición que nos ofrece Libros del asteroide, tenemos un prólogo inicial por su sobrina Charlotte Mosley que, además de recuperar sus obras perdidas, explica con todo lujo de detalles las vicisitudes que tuvo la publicación de esta controvertida novela. Nancy aprovecha ese jardín de ideas que era su familia para añadir elementos de su vida a la trama ya de por sí divertida, ya que tenemos a los dos protagonistas Noel Foster y Jasper Aspect tratando de encontrar como sea una rica heredera a la que embaucar cueste lo que cueste. Las posibles herederas van desde la mimadísima Eugenia Malmains (personaje basado en su hermana Unity), defensora del partido socialunionista (partido afín al nacionalsocialismo hitleriano) hasta Ann Marie Lace (“Ella carecía de habilidades deportivas, tenía pretensiones intelectuales, era ambiciosa y realmente guapa. Su tragedia era haber nacido y haberse criado y casado en el campo.”), casada “felizmente” con Huebert Lace “que era un encanto pero terriblemente celoso, egoísta, codicioso y tacaño”.

Estos personajes junto con algunos más (como Lady Marjorie que huye de su boda y su amiga Poppy) desencadenarán una trama llena de enredos amorosos y equívocos con el telón del fascismo y que Nancy satirizó inmisericordemente (“No entiendo nada de política, pero estoy seguro de que Hitler debe ser un hombre maravilloso”), metiéndose especialmente con sus seguidores británicos y con todas las instituciones que además lo apoyaban como posible salida a una época de crisis. Y ello lo hace con un humor delicioso.

Desgraciadamente su publicación causó una animadversión entre Nancy y sus hermanas, no sólo Unity, razón por la que ella misma prohibió su posterior reedición hasta estos últimos tiempos en los que podemos volver a verla en circulación.

Nancy es uno de los mejores ejemplos de una época convulsa y de cómo intentó llevar, con humor, la literatura unida a la vida de los demás, sin olvidarse de expresar sus propias convicciones; es realmente divertida y, al final siempre nos deja con un sabor de boca estupendo (“Supongo que en realidad sí. Me he acostumbrado a estar enamorada de él, y ya sabes cómo cuesta cambiar de costumbres”). Supongo que yo también me he acostumbrado a que sus novelas estén todas tan bien.

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Sep 29, 2010 Shannon Vincent Nelson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wigs on the Green tells the story of heiress Eugenia Malmains, a devotee of the Union Jackshirts movement (modeled after the British Union of Fascists) and the high jinks that ensue in the pursuit of her hand in marriage. In typical Nancy Mitford fashion, the novel highlights the habits, language, and ideas of pre-WWII Upper Class British society. Nancy is always at her funniest in her exposition of the men of leisure and older Hons. and Duchesses with their Edwardian ideals. One of the funniest...more

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Sep 10, 2010 Juli rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nancy Mitford's biting wit is on offer in this, her third novel, along with other Mitford trademarks -- humor, clipped pace and a skewering of society -- via a madcap cast of characters who gather one sumer in the English countryside to purse love marriage and ideology. Nonetheless, the author refused to have the book reprinted after its debut in 1935. The reason? Her satire in this case is aimed at those who embrace fascism and even the rise of Hitler. That might seem too absurd -- even for Mif...more

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Aug 18, 2010 Catherine Siemann added it

It's really hard to rate a light social comedy about fascism; it's very well done, and Nancy Mitford's characters and plotting are hilarious in a very 1930s piffling sort of way, but the young local leader of the "Union Jackshirts" is based on her sister Unity, who was infatuated with Hitler and shot herself (she didn't die) when Britain declared war on Germany. Mitford's other sister, Diana Mosley, wife of British Union of Fascists president Oswald Mosley, didn't speak to her for years after th...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Spotsalots added it

Shelves: fiction

This early 1930s romp was later suppressed by the author because it took too light-hearted a view of fascism, and of course world events had shown how dangerous fascist groups could be. Yet despite subsequent horrors perpetrated by the Nazis, this remains a funny book. Eugenia Malmains's adolescent passion for developing a British fascist movement is humorous but never appealing, and the novel bounces along skewering numerous aspects of upper-class British life.

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Dec 21, 2011 Christine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: didn-t-finish

It's a shame that there isn't an 'abandoned' category as that's what I did with this book. After reading very few pages I returned it to the library. I hated the writing style and the humour didn't grab me. Perhaps I should have given it a fairer trial by pushing on for a few more pages, but many wonderful books out there await me and life is simply too short to waste it on books that are disliked almost immediately. Sorry, Nancy!

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Mar 27, 2012 Wils Cain rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a great read, many laugh out loud moments at the absurdity of it all. A little off putting that much of the humor is around support for Hitler who is just rising into power in this story written in 1935, before he becomes the monster we learned about in history books. But knowing when it was written and keeping that in mind, it's a light hearted fun read.

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Jan 22, 2011 Linda K K rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an amazing delightful read. Loosely based on several of the author's family members, the story is set around 1935 when many people were drawn to Hitler in a pre-war lovefest. Eugenia is the instigator of forming a local Socialist group in her English town. With a multitude of characters displaying an array of both hidden identities and hot and cold love affairs and marriages, the climax insues when they produce a pageant reinacting British history, resulting in a comedy of errors. Writte...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Eve rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wigs is trenchant but a bit blithe for my taste. There is much to admire and underscore. As with all Mitford, Wigs will recharge the wit of readers craving clever conversation. But treating fascism and nazism as thought fashions was naive when Mitford wrote Wigs. I think her reluctance to republish was a credit to her taste.

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Jul 08, 2012 Alexandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was surprisingly disappointed by this book. Nancy Mitford is one of my favorite writers, but the only thing that held my attention here was the veiled biographical information about Unity Mitford and her witty dialogue. I would only recommend this to someone who is a die hard fan who wants to read Mitford's entire oeuvre.

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Aug 13, 2012 Lynette Twaddle added it

I am aware that it is a.) controversial and b.) a product of its time, but it is still an intriguing read. A send up of a scary movement that falls short of the horror that it inflicted. Part of me likes to think that Nancy was trying to talk Diana and Unity out off all this.

An amusing, if now troubling, read.

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Sep 12, 2011 Didi rated it 2 of 5 stars

This novel was written and is set in the mid-1930's. It satirizes English high society and the English fascist movement.

I enjoyed this novel. It was witty and I'm fond of stories set in England during this period. However, for most people, it's probably skippable.

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May 01, 2013 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars

The most interesting thing about this book is how this satire of British fascism is an analogue to political discourse today. Eugenia's speeches about nationalism, disregard for the poor and ethnocentrism were eerily similar you things you hear today.

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May 27, 2012 Jennifer Marshall rated it 2 of 5 stars

After having thoroughly enjoyed 4 of Mitford's novels, I abandoned this one at page 40 .... her signature banter and wit just didn't work for me with two of the main characters, two bachelors intent of securing a marriage of convenience. Perhaps I'll come back to it again .....

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Sep 08, 2012 David Chura rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you want a romp, if you enjoy watching the 1930s Brit being silly (but oh so seriously) Nancy Mitford is your guide. The book is a spoof of Pro fascist Britons before Hitler became real to people. I did, indeed, laugh out loud.

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May 10, 2013 Allaire Younica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Very interesting to read the satirical commentary on Hitler, before anyone knew what a monster he was Nancy got it right, without meaning to! The story itself was a bit of a slog to get through.

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May 03, 2011 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

This isn't one of Mitford's best, but it's still amusing. The main character is based on Mitford's sister Unity, who became enthralled with fascism and moved to Germany in the 1930s. Part satire of British fascism, part satire of British country families (there's a fantastic section on an insane asylum for British peers which has its own House of Lords), the novel doesn't quite jell in some ways. And though it's odd today to think of someone writing a humorous novel about fascism, part of Mitfor...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Madeline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, library-books, novels, satire-parody, bright-young-things, class, funny, epigrammatic, la-triviata, charming

This is minor Mitford, definitely, if someone like Nancy Mitford can be said to have minor and major works (we're grading on a scale, okay?). Still, it luckily lacks the sourness of, for example, Don't Tell Alfred, and if there's a huge cognitive disconnect in reading a trivial and charming book about . . . rich people joining the BUF - well, she's a Mitford after all.

I quite like jokes about fascism, though; it seems the sanest way to react to fascism. Wigs on the Green is a slight book, though...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Bronwyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: author-j-r, novels, title-s-z-and-number, european

I was worried I wasn't going to like this just due to the controversy Mitford had with her sister's Diana and Unity. I loved it though. It was funny and reminded me of some of the best of Waugh's books. I can see how Diana and Unity wouldn't've liked it, but I didn't think it made fun of fascism that badly either. Eugenia's devotion to her cause was, I thought, treated pretty well with touches of humor added in. I didn't feel it portrayed the Union Jackshirts in a terrible light. Really, the peo...more

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About Nancy Mitford

Nancy Mitford, CBE (28 November 1904, London – 30 June 1973, Versailles), styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years. She was born at 1 Graham Street (now Graham Place) in Belgravia, London, the eldest daughter of Lord Redesdale and...more

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