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The Mitfords in pictures: parties, politics and the real Pursuit of Love

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 her acclaimed Madame de Pompadour, she couldn’t help turning it into a breed of memoir: “I do love it... They were all exactly like ONE,” she wrote in a letter.

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How BBC bonkbuster The Pursuit of Love was inspired by the steamy lives of aristocratic hedonists

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
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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.
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The key characters in racy period drama The Pursuit of Love are based on real peopleCredit: BBC
Volatile Linda Radlett (Lily James) was based on Nancy Mitford, who wrote the 1945 book the BBC1 show is based on.

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ALISON BOSHOFF: The bonkers baron whose life was a pursuit of hedonism

The bonkers baron whose life was a pursuit of hedonism: He inspired the wildest character in the BBC's new drama, but from dyed doves and dogs in pearls to riotous parties, Lord Berners was even barmier, writes ALISON BOSHOFF
The 14th Baron of Berners was a true bon vivant of the early 20th century who entertained everyone from Salvador Dali to Evelyn Waugh
He made such an impression on Nancy Mitford that she based Lord Merlin, the outrageous aesthete in her 1945 novel The Pursuit Of Love on him
Berners adored pranks and practical jokes, and once even placed an advertisement in The Times newspaper offering two elephants for sale

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The homes and interiors of the Mitford sisters

Dean Hearne
In a parallel world, the aristocratic Mitford sisters might have set up a highly profitable decorating business. Exhibit A is the transformation of Chatsworth by the late Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, née Deborah Mitford, from a dark, unlived-in temporary school - the state rooms became dormitories during the Second World War - into one of the finest country houses in England, where simple clay pots of geraniums enlivened rooms furnished with antique treasures. Exhibit B is the trailer for Emily Mortimer’s upcoming BBC adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel
The Pursuit of Love, with a line-up of stars including Lily James, Dominic West and Andrew Scott - and a wealth of covetable interiors, from a gilt-drenched, mirrored drawing room to a gold-tiled Art Deco bathroom.

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Nancy Mitford on the home of the real 'Lord Merlin'

"This article is a tribute to an artist, musician, wit and kindly host."
When Mr. Wood of Bath built Faringdon House, about the middle of the 18th century, his customer was Poet Laureate Pye (generally supposed to have been the worst poet laureate England has ever had and described as eminently respectable in everything but his poetry' by Lord Byron who, of course, knew all about respectability). Pye ordered the house to be built, and Pye paid the bill, established himself there, wrote reams of dreary long-forgotten verse in praise of his master George III, and brought up his dreary long-forgotten children beneath its roof. But I believe that Mr. Wood, gifted with second sight, saw 200 years beyond the laureate and built it specially for Lord Berners, its late occupant. For those who were lucky enough to be friends of the lord and therefore visitors to his house, he being the most hospitable of men, found it impossible to think of one without the other; so much of a piece, both standing four-square on English soil, but both formed in all their essential proportions by European classicism.

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HUGO VICKERS discusses Diana's racy dress and more delicious gossip from his scintillating diaries

When Hugo Vickers was commissioned in 1980 to write the authorised biography of Cecil Beaton, he was granted privileged access to the photographer’s friends and staff — and all his private diaries and letters.
Many of Beaton’s circle had been the ‘Bright Young Things’ of the 1920s. Others were louche aristocrats, renowned former beauties, movie stars and writers, not to mention Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother.
By then in their 70s and 80s, most welcomed the chance to gossip. Over the next five years, Vickers asked them about everything from Cecil’s homosexuality to his extraordinary costume designs for My Fair Lady and his bizarre love affair with Greta Garbo. Many of their recollections duly appeared in Vickers’ best-selling biography.

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Faringdon Folly, Oxfordshire: A Gothic tower built in the 1930s by 'the last great eccentric'

Country Life
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Atop Folly Hill, Faringdon Folly is just the latest landmark at a spot with an astonishing mix of history.
The winds of the five counties on the horizon whistle around your head as you climb the hill to Faringdon Folly, a 100ft-tall Gothic tower built in 1935 by the ‘last great eccentric’ Lord Berners in honour of his companion Robert Heber-Percy.
The room at the top of Faringdon Folly.
This strategic hilltop within the Vale of the White Horse was once the site of a Celtic ring camp, a medieval castle occupied by Queen Matilda, a Cromwellian battery and a Home Guard observation post.

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In Focus: The 100-carat diamond tiara once owned by one of history's greatest spendthrifts

The diamond tiara left behind by Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey.
Credit: Hancock's
Matthew Dennison takes a look at the life and times of Henry Paget, aka the 'Dancing Marquess', whose legendary shopping sprees saw him blow a vast fortune.
It’s fair to say that Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey, had a good start in life. In 1898 he inherited the equivalent of £60 million and an annual income estimated at £12 million, plus 30,000 acres in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Dorset and Anglesey.
Seven years later, its was all gone — even his life itself. The man who won a reputation as ‘The Dancing Marquess’ bequeathed only mountainous debts and a reputation for glorious excess. He loved theatre and staged productions at a converted chapel in his Anglesey home, Pals Newydd, lavishing the equivalent of £1 million on a diamond-encrusted costume for

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