Playboys and fallen women: the wild aristocrats who inspired The Pursuit of Love
Nancy Mitford s 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 Love s 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 – the description that springs to mind is “larger than life”. Ironic, then, that Nancy Mitford’s famous tragicomic satire of English aristocracy in the run-up to the Second World War was in fact drawn closely from reality. Her dazzling and deranged characters are loosely disguised portraits of the blue-blooded circles in which she and her infamous sisters mixed.
How music shaped Virginia Woolf’s writing
Music provided the author with a vocabulary to imagine and describe her creative practice and formal innovations. 4 hours ago Virginia Woolf listened to a wide variety of music, including Russian ballet music which she heard when the Ballets Russes visited London in 1912. | George Charles Beresford, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Many of Virginia Woolf’s early reviewers noted parallels between her literary innovations and those of contemporary composers, such as Claude Debussy. Woolf’s interest in music was overlooked after her death. However, 80 years on, we are now beginning to explore how her extraordinary experimental uses of narrative perspective, repetition and variation derive from her close study of particular musical works and specific musical forms.
A Portrait of the late Doris Viscountess Castlerosse to go on sale at Christie s
London socialite died aged 42 of an overdose at the Dorchester Hotel in 1942
Before her marriage she dated several men, worked as a chorus girl in London
Was known for her long legs and lavish lifestyle, frequenting Cavendish Hotel
Her painting by Sir John Lavery set to fetch between £400,000 and £600,000