Nancy Mitford Books in Order

This volume collects more than twenty years of letters between Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, two very different comic writers. They gossip, quarrel, swap literary advice and dissect each other's work, revealing a friendship that flourished most naturally on paper.

Drawn from decades of correspondence, this selection of Nancy Mitford's letters shows her teasing family, reporting on Paris life and confiding in friends and her lover Gaston Palewski. It offers an intimate, unsmoothed record of her voice and preoccupations across sixty years.

An omnibus volume, Pudding and Pie gathers three early novels in one book: Highland Fling, Christmas Pudding and Pigeon Pie. Readers can follow Mitford's comic world from Scottish house party to Cotswold Christmas to wartime spy spoof, watching her style sharpen from story to story.

This short biography, written from within the family circle, sketches Nancy Mitford's childhood at Asthall, her London social years, troubled marriage and long residence in France. It offers an affectionate, partial portrait built from memories, letters and shared jokes.

Mitford's biography of Frederick II of Prussia follows him from bullied musical prince to formidable soldier-king. She traces his friendship with Voltaire, his battlefield triumphs and his reforms at home, sketching a contradictory figure who loved philosophy almost as much as power.

This illustrated life of Louis XIV focuses on Versailles at its height, following the Sun King's daily routine, ministers, mistresses and artists. Rather than a dry chronicle of wars, Mitford recreates the glittering, often claustrophobic world of the seventeenth century French court.

In this slim collection of essays, Mitford turns her eye on everything from the family's beloved nanny "Blor" to travel in Russia and Ireland, Paris fashions and English country life. The pieces are light and conversational, full of throwaway asides and sharply chosen details.

Twenty years after the Radlett girls' debut, Fanny is a contented don's wife until Alfred is unexpectedly posted to Paris as British ambassador. Overnight she is plunged into diplomatic dinners, wayward sons, an ex-ambassadress who will not move out and endless crises nobody wants Alfred to hear about.

Mitford recounts the long, tangled love affair between Voltaire and the brilliant Marquise du Châtelet, setting their relationship against the wider French Enlightenment. Salons, scandals and philosophical quarrels jostle together in a fast-moving, human portrait of two formidable minds and their circle.

Born from Mitford's mischievous article on the English aristocracy, this short book gathers essays, a letter and a poem to explore the idea of "U" and "Non-U" language. It is a witty snapshot of mid twentieth century British class anxiety and manners.

Gathering essays, journalism and reviews from across four decades, this collection shows Mitford in full, spiky voice. She writes about the English aristocracy, France, historical figures and travel, mixing sharp social observation with throwaway jokes and unapologetically strong opinions.

This lively biography traces Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson from Parisian bourgeois childhood to her reinvention as Madame de Pompadour, official mistress of Louis XV. Mitford follows her rise at Versailles, her influence in politics and the arts, and the intrigues that swirled around her until her early death.

Shy Englishwoman Grace marries dashing French aristocrat Charles-Edouard and finds herself adrift in postwar Paris, where mistresses are taken for granted. Their clever son Sigi, determined to keep both parents to himself, cheerfully engineers misunderstandings that threaten to wreck the marriage.

Fanny returns as narrator to tell the story of Polly Hampton, an heiress groomed for a perfect society marriage who calmly wrecks her parents' plans with a scandalous choice of husband. Between terrifying Lady Montdore and charming cousin Cedric, love and status are constantly, hilariously renegotiated.

Narrated by sensible cousin Fanny, this novel follows beautiful, romantic Linda Radlett from a wild country childhood into a string of disastrous marriages and grand passions. It is a funny, bittersweet portrait of English upper-class life between the wars and the heartbreaks love can bring.

At the outbreak of World War II, frivolous Lady Sophia Garfield longs to be a glamorous spy while gliding through London parties. When her maid is murdered and her bulldog kidnapped by real German agents, she must bungle her way into genuine espionage to set things right.

Edited from family papers, this volume presents the letters of the Stanley family between 1851 and 1865. Domestic worries, politics, travel and sharp humour build into an intimate portrait of a large Victorian household moving through a rapidly changing world.

Two cheerful fortune-hunters descend on an English country town in search of rich brides and find themselves entangled with Eugenia Malmains, a wildly enthusiastic supporter of charismatic Captain Jack and his Union Jackshirts. Mitford turns 1930s political extremism into sharp, unsettling farce.

A fox-hunting Christmas at Compton Bobbin throws together formidable Lady Bobbin, her rebellious daughter Philadelphia and nervous novelist Paul Fotheringay, desperate to be taken seriously. Nearby, beautiful Amabelle Fortescue hosts her own party, and the two households collide in escalating festive chaos.

Young Jane Dacre accepts an invitation to a Highland house party at a draughty Scottish castle, where exuberant Bright Young Things clash with their stuffy elders. Flirtations, practical jokes and an ill-judged ghost hoax build to a farcical, smoky climax.