Nancy Mitford

Novelist, Author

1904 – 1973

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Who was Nancy Mitford?

Nancy Freeman-Mitford CBE, known as Nancy Mitford, was an English novelist, biographer and journalist. She was one of the renowned Mitford sisters and one of the "Bright Young People" on the London social scene in the inter-war years, and is best remembered for her novels about upper-class life in England and France, and for her sharp and often provocative wit. She also established a reputation as a writer of popular historical biographies.

Mitford enjoyed a privileged childhood as the eldest daughter of the Hon. David Freeman-Mitford, later 2nd Baron Redesdale. Educated privately, she had no training as a writer before publishing her first novel in 1931. This early effort and the three that followed it created little stir; it was her two semi-autobiographical postwar novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate that established her reputation. Mitford had been unhappily married since 1933 to Peter Rodd, and formed a liaison during the Second World War with a Free French officer, Gaston Palewski, who became the love of her life although the pair were never a formal couple. After the war Mitford settled in France and lived there for the rest of her life, maintaining social contact with her many English friends through letters and regular visits.

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Born
Nov 28, 1904
London
Parents
Siblings
Spouses
Nationality
  • England
Profession
Education
  • University of Oxford
Lived in
  • Paris
  • London
Died
Jun 30, 1973
Versailles

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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