BOOKSELLER'S SECRET

In London,1942, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. The once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband and still recovering from a devastating loss. Her allowance has been cut, and she's given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics. Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop in Mayfair while its owner is away at war. Between the shop's brisk business and the literary salons she hosts for her eccentric friends, Nancy's life seems on the upswing. But when a mysterious French officer insists that she has a story to tell, Nancy must decide if picking up the pen again and revealing all is worth the price she might be forced to pay. 80 years later, the bookshop is abuzz with the hunt for a lost wartime manuscript written by Nancy Mitford. For one woman desperately in need of a change, the search will reveal not only a new side to Nancy, but an even more surprising link between the past and present. The book alternates between London in the present day and World War Two and is told from the viewpoint of American author Katie Cabot in London to visit her friend Jojo. Ernest Hemingway is dismissed as 'the biggest bore on earth' and Evelyn Waugh although supposedly a friend as 'a workaday, bloated drunk in a bowler hat'. We think it's time to re-read The Pursuit of Love! A literary feast any booklover will savour. With biographical notes on the Mitfords, 370pp in paperback.