Gaston Palewski News Today

Life in a palazzo, boat rides with Nancy Mitford… Gill Johnson relives her year in the City of Water, as told to Maddy Fletcher.

Roger Kimball on Sybille Bedford’s writing.

The unprecedented declassification of French nuclear archives sheds light upon the nuclear tests in Algeria circa 1960.

How a little Mayfair bookshop inspired Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love Having almost given up writing, Nancy Mitford joined Heywood Hill bookshop, turning it into a literary salon that inspired her greatest work Heywood Hill bookshop in Mayfair, beloved by the Queen The year is 1936: Jesse Owens embarrasses the Third Reich at its own Olympics, Edward VIII ascends the throne and Heywood Hill, a little bookshop on Curzon Street in Mayfair, opens its doors for the first time. Named after th...

The Mitfords in pictures: parties, politics and the real Pursuit of Love Meet the stranger-than-fiction family behind the BBC drama, who kept horses on the staircase and Nazis in the closet 17 May 2021 • 6:57am When The Pursuit of Love came out in 1945, Evelyn Waugh noted in his diary: “Nancy has written a novel full of exquisite detail of Mitford family life”. Nancy Mitford never found a muse to match her own family. Even later, when she came to write historical biography, starting with ...

You wait years for a handsome duke – and then two come along at once. As Bridgerton fans dry their tears over the news that Rege-Jean Page will no longer be appearing as the Duke of Hastings, they might be consoled by the advent of a new duke – Fabrice, Duc de Sauveterre. Played by handsome French actor Assaad Bouab, this duke began romancing Lily Jamess character Linda Radlett in last nights episode of the BBCs adaptation of The Pursuit Of Love. Bouab, 40, may be familiar already thanks t...

With The Pursuit of Love, the Mitfords became the Kardashians of their day We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss By Iona McLaren Save Normal text size Advertisement “My dear Lady Kroesig, I have only ever read one book in my life, and that is White Fang. It’s so frightfully good I’ve never bothered to read another.” So says Uncle Matthew in Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, a glossy new adaptation of which will be ...

Hamish was a society butterfly and chamismatic - but also gay.  Nancys own brother Tom had had a brief schoolboy dalliance with him at Eton, and warned Nancy that the relationship was doomed to fail. Less than a month after her breakup from Hamish St Clair Eskine, Nancy accepted a rash proposal from Peter Rodd, the son of diplomat Lord Rennell (pictured together on their wedding day)  After five years of unrequited love and a heartless engagement, Hamish brutally broke it off, pretending hed ...

How BBC bonkbuster The Pursuit of Love was inspired by the steamy lives of aristocratic hedonists Rod McPhee, TV Editor Updated: May 10 2021, 18:06 ET Rod McPhee, TV Editor Invalid Date, THE Pursuit Of Love has thrilled viewers with its look back at the decadent world of filthy-rich toffs indulging in sex, drugs and wild partying between the wars. But incredibly, the key characters in the racy period drama are based on REAL people. 14 The key characters in racy period drama The Pursuit of Love...

Playboys and fallen women: the wild aristocrats who inspired The Pursuit of Love Nancy Mitfords novel, freshly adapted for the BBC, drew heavily on her social circle – and in particular her own eccentric family 10 May 2021 • 10:06am The Pursuit of Loves Lord Merlin (Andrew Scott, centre) was inspired by Gerald Berners Credit: Robert Viglasky/BBC When it comes to novel The Pursuit of Love – a new adaptation of which began on BBC One last night, written and directed by Emily Mortimer �...