Non-Fiction Books
Hardcover in good condition, with acceptable jacket. First edition. Original price on front 18s. net. Jacket, hardcover, page block and pages are marked and tanned. Text on jacket spine is faded. Stamps on front and spine of jacket. Jacket leading corners, edges and spine are worn, torn and creased. Portions torn from rear upper edge and spine head. Front spine side is reinforced with tape on inside. Hardcover leading corners, edges and spine ends are bumped and worn. Spine ends are nicked. Contents are clear throughout. Binding is sound. HCW
The Great U and Non-U Debate Until Nancy Mitford wrote 'The English Aristocracy' in 1955, England was blissfully unconscious of U-Usage and its lethal implications. The phenomenon of 'Upper-Class English Usage' had, it is true, already been remarked upon by Professor Alan Ross who, in an academic paper printed in Helsinki a year earlier, claimed that the upper classes now distinguished solely by their use of language, but it was the Honourable Mrs. Peter Rodd (as she was addressed by U-speaker Evelyn Waugh, Esq.) who first let the cat out of the bag. Her article sparked off a public debate joined vigorously by Evelyn Waugh, 'Strix', and Christopher Sykes, whose counterblasts are collected here. Osbert Lancaster, caricaturist of English manners, takes the debate into the visual dimension, and John Betjeman poeticizes on the theme with characteristic charm: Phone for the fish-knives Norman As Cook is a little unnerved; You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes And I must have things daintily served. A new introduction by Ned Sherrin reveals more of the articles and correspondences that were generated by the debate, in his inimitably entertaining fashion.
In this biography of Frederick the Great, Nancy Mitford carefully unravels the complex character of one of Europe's brilliant rulers. She re-creates his unhappy youth; his reforming zeal, which paved the way for a united Germany; and his spectacular wars.
What was Nancy Mitford's wicked sense of humour really like? The writer and poet Harold Acton was - like Nancy Mitford herself - one of the Bright Young Things and a life-long close friend with whom she stayed in touch from Paris and London. From the letters and materials she had been gathering for her autobiography, Acton draws an irresistibly sparkling portrait of the author of "Love in a Cold Climate" and "The Pursuit of Love", who was so unhappy in love herself. Full of her waspish wit, gossip, and the drops of acid she liked to pour on the pretensions of her time, he paints a fresh portrait that is unlikely to be surpassed.