The Mitfords
Page 25
Oh yes ‘My Bob used to be so smart he was called the Duke – I wish you could see him now – terrible’.
Mrs Kliot is going to Hungary & Prague so perhaps she’ll meet Jonathan.5 She said ‘I hope you never see the Mosleys’, I said of course I do I live for them. This threw a froid [damper].
I’ve been reading the letters of Madame6 – almost more fascinating than St Simon. I see Versailles was an absolute Eton as far as Sodomy goes. She says after forty years in France she can’t get used to the horror of French food.
I must go back to Polly.7 Do do write – perhaps to rue Monsieur in case I leave here next week.
All love darling, NR
Darling:
Of course I understand about the book, I am so glad it is swimming along, the bliss of it. The boat would be horrid, I only hoped to lure you out of selfishness.
We screamed with laughter about the Treuhafts, Kit says after all the talk & trouble only ONE Mitford has ever done any harm to a Jud [Jew] – Decca. I adore where he was known as the Duke, won’t Debo be interested.
Did you see the article in Time about Evelyn, it says you can see his progress as a social climber by the dedications in his books, starting with Evelyn G[ardner] and ending in the topmost pinnacle – you!1
I said to Alexander ‘Is there anything Mr Watson2 would like for a present?’ So he said ‘Yes & I know what it is because I once asked him what he would wish for if he got a wish & he replied “For a clear mind”’. I asked him myself after that & we have got him a hearth rug.
All love darling, I will write on the boat, D
Darling:
Just a line to say that Debo popped in yesterday and (this is between ourselves) it seems that Muv has got an idea that you think she oughtn’t ever to have taken Boud far away from Prof Cairns – of course I knew this had never crossed your mind but if you could write and put something comforting about how wonderful it was that Birdie was able to go about here & there, and not be a hospital case all those years – or you will think of something much cleverer than that, but do write her a line. She was such a saint to Bobo, I can’t imagine how she could have any remorse, but the fact is almost all deaths bring remorse, isn’t it odd.
All love darling. D
Darling,
I am dreadfully teased by what you say & don’t quite know what to do. Not only never did such an idea cross my mind, but I couldn’t imagine that anybody could think such a thing. I vaguely remember that under the stress of great emotion & after that dreadful journey (I was really ill with it you know) I said ‘Oh but didn’t you send for Cairns’ which I see now was very tactless – but like that & no more than that, & said ‘Oh of course, naturally’ when Muv explained why not. Do you think she’s brooding over that, poor Muv? I can’t bear her to think I feel that anything different should have been done. I will ponder over it all & write what I think best.
I always thought except for you & the Col I shouldn’t mind anybody but you see one never can tell. I am terribly sad about Bobo.
V. best love darling, NR
Darling,
I’ve just acquired a mammoth Bécuve to heat my drawing room. As Peter plans to spend the winter here & we can’t both huddle in my bedroom I have to make an effort – I guess it will cost £100 in wood. Oh dear – & at Noël’s first night my pocket book was stolen out of my bag! And I’m so poor anyway, it was a blow. I feel very low about Prod, I can see he never intends to do another stroke of work as long as he lives, & in the winter it is twenty times more difficult somehow to see the Col in his flat, the cold makes everything such an effort doesn’t it. However he – Prod – has got me in a cleft stick with no possible means of escape. Marriage, the horror of it!
I’ve just been to the Musée Rodin – what a lot of English people he sculpted, I’d no idea. What a wonderful artist & how sad he lived then really, he can’t quite avoid awful bad taste can he?
All love darling – write write, NR
My back aches terribly again do you think it is Farve’s complaint1 or ovaries?
Darling,
I am haunted by the idea of you leaving Crowood – where will you go?1 I had an awful dream about you packing last night – everything lost – one of those nightmares! You know they say here ‘Trois déménagements = un incendie’.2 And Mr Watson? Oh the horror of husbands!!!
Here we are all greatly dashed by the sudden death of Peter Derwent. He just lay down for a little rest after luncheon & never woke up again – a happy death for him. But for Carmen [Gandarillas] I feel it is the end – she was so so happy, had her wedding dress & they were to be married 6 Feb – did you ever hear such a tragedy?
Now a letter from Evelyn speaking of my ‘horrible sins’. Altogether I am quite low this morning only consoled by Clèves3 which I am very much enjoying. Of course it is twice as easy as Balzac – you were so brave to tackle that.
What have you done about titles? One must say King & Queen. One can say Duke of X but one can’t say Miss of Chartres. I can’t decide. You must have come up against it in the Duchesse.
Oh the death of Peter has shaken me, to think people can walk out of the world like that. I suppose it’s because we are older, but how people do seem to die nowadays.
Now St François has begun its funeral bell, the last straw, I must get up.
Love darling, NR
Darling,
Peter & Ad1 have arrived from a huge motor TOR of Italy & Sicily. Ad has now gone home & Peter will take me to Dieppe on the 10th which makes the journey ever so much cheaper.
Then Debo appeared with a sister-in-law (the thin fascinator)2 & a bald young man, making no sense at all & such clothes darling, so awful one couldn’t think how anybody could have such things in the cupboard even. Oh dear I do wish she were a little tidier I must say because then she would be perfection – I do so feel it’s a duty for people like her to be a little bit elegant. Never mind it was heaven to see her, & perhaps if she were different in that respect she would become pompous which would be far worse.
Oh dear, a note from Edward in six different coloured chalks saying that since I wore a black beard everybody thinks I’m his sister. Alas I did look exactly like him.3 So now I must ask him to something – and Audrey [Pleydell-Bouverie] is here and Helen [Dashwood], Tony4 just arrived. Rather a struggle as they all expect such hours of time & then there’s Ed Stanley’s daughter said to be very shy & very critical, what to do with her?
Much love darling, NR
Darling,
Fog in Kent, foghorns all the way over the Channel, fog in the Pas de Calais – blazing sunshine here & the chestnuts out. Now you’ve had it!
Oh the bliss of seeing the Col again. I said on the telephone ‘I’ve had a wonderful time, I’ve got a present for you’. ‘I don’t quite follow your argument.’
Darling I can never thank you enough for being so wondairfool & having me so long, an imposition really. I enjoyed myself terrifically, felt less tired than I generally do, hardly at all in fact & it was heaven being with you. If we could live in the same town my happiness would be complete.
My camellia is out, Marie has done terrific cleaning & the flat is a dream – also the lawyer says he has good news for me & I’m to hear it tomorrow. I feel almost too much on top of the world – how nice it is to be happy in middle age after a wretched youth instead of the other way round.
Oh I do adore my scented bath flannel. I’m having a day in bed, bliss. Do be careful won’t you & not do too much. Sometimes you look tired, but less than last time I was there I thought but you go to bed late & really ought to rest more in the day – now please take these words to heart.
I got all my stuff over without trouble & thankful I did because all that in the papers about rations here being off is pure lies & it was very bien reçu [well received] by Marie specially the oil.
Millions more thanks for everything – love, NR
Darling the key oh what can I say, worse than Jonathan. And I don’t like to
post it. I see too that I left my beast of an umbrella, but I have one here so if you could bear to keep it in some rubbish room or other that would be perfect. Oh I have been awful – only just seen the key.
Darling:
Just got your letter, the KEY doesn’t matter a bit, I have got dozens & am always having more made (don’t tell Kit). I will keep your umbrella and thought I might get Heywood to pack up your slippers with Weizmann?1 I have read every word, it is engrossing, and now I wish I were a Jew, well not now perhaps, I should hate a settlement but it must have been wonderful to be Chaim. His chief hates are Venetia’s husband and B. Baruch,2 & do note the ‘old English gentleman’, some Montefiore who spoke o but German.
Yesterday our Captain came, it made the voyage seem so lovely & near.3 He told such tales of calm (being rocked by swell until the crew go off their heads) that I now rather hope for storms.
All love darling, D
Darling
No, not gone yet, but wonderful news – PASSPORTS. Kit discovered that you get turned out of the United Nations or something unless you allow your citizens the four freedoms or whatever it is called & one of them is that people shld be allowed to leave & return to their country at will – of course you can if you can spend thousands on a yacht but I don’t suppose that was meant. Anyway Bob [Boothby] teased with the freedoms and now they have given in at long last & at the last moment. Isn’t it bliss; I couldn’t help dreading all the difficulties we might have had everywhere. Oh darling I can’t wait to get there. We are off I hope on Whit Monday, we had to put it off a few days as Max has had his adenoids out, he got terribly deaf again so the specialist rushed him to Gt Ormond St & did it. He seems better already.
Muv & Debo are in London which is lovely.
We met (at Daisy’s) the editors of Woman’s Home Journal or whatever it is & I said I couldn’t believe they hadn’t serialized your new book1 as it was such heaven. So Mr Gould,2 who is a terrific prig, said the subject was rather unsavoury, something about a fairy, so I said ‘unsavoury, why in Europe we love them & always choose them out for friends’. He said what were you like & I lost my head & said ‘Oh she’s wonderful, just like me’. Then he said wouldn’t Cedric have a very limited appeal here so I teased by saying well it is Book Society Book of the Month AND D. Mail. He was shaken I could see. I wish I could think I had done some good. He said all those little kiddies in the first book, why they were just delightful.
All love darling, D
Darling Debo
We do long for you more than words can express.
Daisy is here on her boat which is a sort of floating Donnington1 for glamour. Nancy is with us, and we expect Jonathan who is in trouble with the army for parading in his (I am sure filthy) pyjamas, & for some reason has got ten days leave! Cannes is as beastly as ever & I want to move as soon as possible to Antibes or Monte Carlo, but we must stay a moment because of various business.
Darling, Spain was such fun, I long to go with you to Madrid. It is solid with dukes and they all ask one to boar hunts. The boys went to a bullfight & saw a matador tossed, Max said, ‘we enquired after him next day, but’ (very disappointed voice) ‘he was quite well again.’
All love darling, DO come (both if poss), Honks
Darling,
What day do I expect you? I utterly utterly die for it & only hope you won’t be too uncomf. We shan’t be able to have all meals here because by great bad luck I am without a charwoman for the time being for reasons which I will explain (or won’t, being not Woman) but you’ll probably want to go out a bit.
Can you believe it, Les Oeufs de l’autruche1 is on again, I am so thrilled for you to see it.
I’m doggo, not answering telephone & working ten hours a day2 – all day in fact. Saw the Wid approaching yesterday & hid in a cupboard but it was no use she soon had me out. She insisted on taking my only pair of country shoes & then said ‘Child they give a very curious sensation – I feel as if I were walking backwards’. She’ll be here when you are & is full of plans & projects. She said it would be better for me to give up all thought of work until you’ve gone, I said ‘yes but the point is I must finish before they come’ – which I must, my preface. I shan’t begin the other3 until you’re gone – if at all. I’m flinching from it rather, but egged on by Col.
Much love, love to Kit & Debo. NR
Saw Gerald who read me your letter. He is quite well I think but furious if one says so!
Darling
I had such a fright about Gerald, I couldn’t go over because the motor was away being mended, and on Sunday I telephoned & Robert [Heber-Percy]’s mother evidently thought him very bad, and then on Monday morning Robert rang up and said do come over, so we rushed there on our way to London. When I saw him I thought him no worse and perhaps a shade more cheerful. He adored your letter about Sir S. Cripps’s walk from the Gare du Nord,1 and at that, & one or two things, he said I screamed with laughter and Kit, who was in the drawing room with Mrs Heber Percy, said he heard nought but peacock shrieks & I believe he thought I got him over there just because I wanted a good laugh (I was in floods on the way over because of Gerald being worse).
It is so hard for some people to understand that laughter doesn’t always mean cheerfulness – just something funny. The odd thing is that the doctors say there is nothing much the matter with him now, but he lies like a log with two nurses and all the paraphernalia of terrific illness and I believe he dreads getting better for fear of his depression coming back (he is not awfully depressed now). We talk of him coming to Crowood and he says he longs to, but you know he won’t even open his eyes!2
All love darling, D
* * *
1 Gaston Palewski (1901–84). Always called by Nancy the ‘Colonel’, or ‘Col’, after his rank in the army. Joined General de Gaulle in London in 1940 and remained as head of his cabinet 1942–6. Elected Deputy in 1951, he was vice-president of the National Assembly 1953–5, ambassador to Rome 1957–1962, and president of the Constitutional Council 1965–74.
2 Pierre Laval (1883–1945). As a senior member of the Vichy government, Laval was tried for collaboration. After a failed suicide attempt, he was executed on 15 October 1945.
3 Nancy had justified her move to Paris by ostensibly going to buy books for Heywood Hill.
4 Hamish (Jamie) Hamilton (1900–88). Nancy’s publisher from 1940 until her death and the publisher of Diana’s memoirs, A Life of Contrasts (1977).
5 Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited came out in May, six months before The Pursuit of Love
6 ‘As a lover of porcelain–’.
1 Lady Redesdale’s cook for many years who went to help out when Unity returned from Germany after her suicide attempt.
1 Elizabeth Chetwynd (d.1961). An English bluestocking who reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement Her flat was handy for Nancy as Palewski lived in the same street.
2 Prince Marc de Beauvau-Craon (1921–82). A Free French officer and friend of Palewski. Married Laure de Rougemont in 1972.
3 Anne and Elizabeth Cavendish.
4 Mouvement Républicain Populaire, a Christian Democrat party formed in 1944.
5 Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970). The General had been President of the provisional government since 1944 and was re-elected in November 1945.
1 Denise Rémon (1892–1967). Parisian literary and café-society figure. Married the French dramatist Edouard Bourdet (1887–1945) as her second husband.
2 Jacques Février (1900–79). Pianist, and a close associate of the composer Francis Poulenc.
1 Nancy’s maid.
2 The Duke and Duchess of Windsor settled in France after the war.
3 Sigrid, Nancy’s ex-maid.
1 Alice Edmonstone (1869–1947). Edward VII’s mistress during his last years. Married George Keppel in 1891.
2 In The Pursuit of Love, Louisa’s fiancé gave her a replica of King Alfred’s jewel which Linda, the heroine of the novel, compared to a chicken’s mess, �
�same size, same shape, same colour’. Nancy based this episode on an actual remark she made to Pamela when Oliver Watney had given her a replica of the jewel as an engagement present in 1929.
3 Pamela Peel (1900–62). Married to Charles Chichester 1924–8, and to John Wrench in 1934.
1 Gaston Palewski’s American friends sent him tins of high-grade pork from time to time.
2 John Sutro’s plan to film Turgenev’s Torrents of Spring never got off the ground.
3 Molly Friese-Green (1909–2005). Assistant at Heywood Hill who managed the accounts. Married Handasyde Buchanan, a partner in the bookshop, in 1949.
4 Observing the Nuremberg trials, Winston Churchill commented to Lord Ismay, ‘It shows that if you get into a war, it is supremely important to win it. You and I would be in a pretty pickle if we had lost.’ The Memoirs of Lord Ismay (Heinemann, 1960), p. 157.
5 Noël Coward (1899–1977). The playwright was in Paris working on the French version of Blithe Spirit.
1 Olga Lynn (1882–1961). Diminutive opera singer and singing teacher.