Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters (63 page)

Read Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters Online

Authors: Laura Thompson

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Historical

BOOK: Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters
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Approaching her subject with wit, perspicacity and affection, prize-winning author Laura Thompson makes her serious points lightly, eschewing clichés about the eccentricities of the Mitford clan. This is a book that will fascinate anyone interested in Nancy Mitford’s circle and the world of her novels, which say so much about their author and yet only hint at the many sorrows she stoically endured. Life in a Cold Climate is full of the sound of Mitfordian laughter; but tells also the often paradoxical and complex story beneath the smiling and ever elegant façade.

Life in a Cold Climate
is available
here
.

A Different Class of Murder: the Story of Lord Lucan

On 7 November 1974, a nanny named Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death in a Belgravia basement. A second woman, Veronica, Countess of Lucan, was also attacked. The man named in a coroner’s court as the perpetrator of these crimes, Richard John Bingham, 7
th
Earl of Lucan, disappeared in the early hours of the following morning. The case, solved in the eyes of the law, has retained its fascination ever since.

Laura Thompson, acclaimed biographer of Agatha Christie, narrates the story that led up to that cataclysmic event, and draws on her considerable forensic skills to re-examine the possible truths behind one of postwar Britain’s most notorious murders.
A Different Class of Murder
is a portrait of an era, of an extraordinary cast of characters, of a mystery, of a modern myth. Part social history, part detective story, it tells in masterly style one of the great tales of our collective living memory

A Different Class of Murder
is available
here
.

An Invitation from the Publisher

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The story starts here.

First published in 2015 by Head of Zeus Ltd

Copyright © Laura Thompson 2015

The moral right of Laura Thompson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The
image credits on page 387
constitutes an extension of this copyright page.

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN (HB) 9781784970871

ISBN (E) 9781784970888

Jacket images l–r: Pamela Jackson by Bassano Ltd, 29 January 1936 © National Portrait Gallery, London; Deborah Freeman-Mitford, the Duchess of Devonshire, 3 December 1952 © Illustrated London News Ltd/ Mary Evans; Jessica Mitford © Mary Evans/Yevonde Portrait Archive; Diana Guinness by Madame Yevonde, 11 January 1933 © Yevonde Portrait Archive/ILN/Mary Evans Picture Library; Unity Mitford by Bassano Ltd, 9 November 1937 © National Portrait Gallery, London; Nancy Freeman-Mitford in The Bystander, 20 April 1932 © Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Author photo: Richard Blower

Head of Zeus Ltd

Clerkenwell House

45-47 Clerkenwell Green

London EC1R 0HT

www.headofzeus.com

Table of Contents

Cover

Welcome Page

Dedication

The Mitford Family Tree

The Mitford Phenomenon

PART I

PART II

PART III

PART IV

Afterwards

Plate Section

Preview

Notes

Select Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index

Picture Acknowledgements

About Take Six Girls

Reviews

About Laura Thompson

Also by Laura Thompson

An Invitation from the Publisher

Copyright

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