Quintessential Mitford | The Bookshop At 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill...

Nancy Mitford did not OWN the bookshop! | The Bookshop At 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952û73 | Nancy Mitford, Heywood Hill, ...

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	• The Bookshop At 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952û73 Nancy Mitford, Heywood Hill, ... Frances Lincoln, 2004 - 191 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Sharply observed like her books, but more for the fan of her times

I never knew that Nancy owned a bookshop, and in fact one that still exists today. It is odd that in all her biographies and the biographies of the Mitford girls that thisis the first time I have taken in this fact.

This is a selection of the letters in this period to and from the shop. As they begin in the 50's you can see the formation of her later works - the fiction such as the Blessing, and the research and information which went in to her biographies.

I felt a little disappointed though. She writes with her usual razor sharp wit, but it somehow seemed so much more prosaic when it was simply about her life. The advantage of fiction is that it moves so quickly and is ruthlessly edited - letters simply record life as it is - or how it seems - it has no pace of its own. So don't read this simply for her wit, read it is a sharply observed reflection of her own place and times.

I did enjoy browsing through this, and its length is such that it is easy to flick through without feeling burdened by huge amounts of text. It is well footnoted along the way too making it easier to come to grips with names and places etc. Not always context though. I was not clear on the significance of some of the items - for instance not being British I had to look up just what kind of paper New Statesman was.

Overall recommended for Mitfordites.

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Quintessential Mitford

Nancy Mitford was one of the world's great letter writers. I own two collections of her letters "Love From Nancy" and "The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh". This volume, composed of letters between Mitford and the man with whom she shared ownership of a London bookstore, adds a different dimension to Mitford's communications in that they show her as a businesswoman and also as a researcher for her biographical works on Madame de Pompadour, Louis XIV, Voltaire, and Frederick the Great.

Even though most of these letters had some sort of business or professional intent, all of them display Mitford's sparkling wit and sharp sense of humor. The letters from Heywood Hill are also humorous and make it clear that this was not merely a professional relationship but a close and long lasting friendship. Together the two were friends with much of London's literary set and also had close ties of kinship and friendship with a large segment of the aristocracy. It was probably a good thing that Nancy Mitford lived in Paris during most of the period covered by these letters. Otherwise it is difficult to imagine any kind of work getting done at 10 Curzon Street for all the shrieks of laughter and impromptu parties, and the bookshop would have had to close years ago.

Heywood Hill is still in business at 10 Curzon Street, and it is one of my favorite London bookshops. This collection is a perfect memoir, not just of two very bright and funny people, but of the business which brought them together and helps perpetuates their memory.

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Nancy Mitford did not OWN the bookshop!

For heaven's sake. Where have these reviewers got the idea that Nancy Mitford owned a bookshop?

She was employed in the bookshop Heywood Hill, which was owned by her friends Heywood and Anne Hill, at 10 Curzon Street, which still exists and is, by the way, excellent. She was an hourly wage-earner. That's what is meant by "bookseller" - she actually sold the books. She never owned Heywood Hill. She was never a partner. Virtually every biography you care to read states this fact. She worked there for four years during the war, and frequently complained about her low salary -- see her letters to Evelyn Waugh, for a start.

Certainly she created a salon atmosphere, encouraging her literary and social set to drop in and use the place as an informal sort of club. Probably she charmingly acted as though she owned it, but in fact she was very impecunious until The Pursuit of Love hit it big, and hadn't anything like the cash to own, or partner, such an establishment.

At one point there was some discussion between her and Heywood that she might open a sort of satellite branch of the shop in Paris, sending difficult-to-get French titles on to him, but as this really was just an excuse for her to spend time in that city which she intended to make her home for other reasons, she abandoned that idea quite early on, though they continued to write one another about books in a general way, hence the book under discussion.

In fact in latter years her brother in law, the Duke of Devonshire (husband of her sister Debo) became a majority shareholder of the bookshop, but that was long after Nancy's days there.

Back to the present book. This is a good gossip and romp through years of in-jokes and her usual shrewd and often funny character assassination, with a good helping of book reviews on the side, for existing fans of Mrs P. Rodd and her circle who will know all the players and skip most of the redundant footnotes. Others will likely find it a bit labyrinthine. You love her or you don't. If you do -- a must.

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Sharply observed like her books, but more for the fan of her times

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Nancy Mitford's letters to Heywood Hill advise on recent French titles that might appeal to him and his customers, gossip engagingly about life in Paris, and enquire anxiously about the reception of her own books, while seeking advice about new titles to read.

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