Radlett and Montdore Books in Order

The Radlett and Montdore books bring together three of Nancy Mitford's comic novels, set among a tangle of cousins, parents and hangers on in the English upper classes between the wars and into the 1950s. All three are narrated by Fanny, the observant, self-effacing cousin who stands just slightly to one side of the drama she describes.

In The Pursuit of Love Fanny looks back on childhood visits to Alconleigh, the rambling family house where her aunt and uncle raise a brood of Radlett children on hunting, arguments and private jokes. Her cousin Linda grows up obsessed with the idea of romantic love, careering from one unsuitable marriage to another while war edges closer in the background.

Love in a Cold Climate takes place over much the same period but shifts the spotlight to neighbouring grand people, the Montdores. Their daughter Polly is a celebrated beauty groomed for a perfect society marriage, yet she treats the London Season with baffling indifference. When she calmly chooses the one husband guaranteed to scandalise everyone, Fanny watches the family fortunes twist in unexpected and often very funny ways.

Running through both novels are figures who have become classics in their own right: terrifying Uncle Matthew, dreamy Aunt Sadie, formidable Lady Montdore and Cedric, the flamboyant heir who arrives from abroad and cheerfully rearranges the social order. Mitford uses them to explore money, snobbery, sex and loyalty, always with a cool eye and jokes that land lightly even when the stakes are high.

Two decades later Don't Tell Alfred picks up Fanny's story again. Now middle aged and settled in Oxford, she discovers that her don husband has been made British ambassador to Paris. The novel follows her awkward education in embassy life, from ex-ambassadresses who refuse to move out to wayward teenage sons and small diplomatic crises that everyone is determined not to bother Alfred with.

Across the three books readers see the same world in different moods: pre-war country house rituals, glittering parties in London, shabby but exciting postwar Paris. Characters drift in and out of one another's stories, ageing, marrying, disgracing themselves and occasionally finding contentment. The tone stays light, yet behind the jokes lies a steady awareness that wars and politics keep intruding on even the most insulated families.

Taken together, the Radlett and Montdore novels offer a layered portrait of one extended clan over thirty unsettled years. They can be read separately or straight through as an informal saga, and they are often the best starting point for readers new to Nancy Mitford.