Darling: A razor-sharp, gloriously funny retelling of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love

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Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. The Pursuit of Love has scarcely been out of print since initial publication, and is not yet out of copyright. The lives of Rafiq’s three children becoming increasingly dependent on their relationship to money:Siver, the only daughter, escapes into an unhappy marriage in Baghdad before fleeing to raise her daughter as a single mother in Dubai. Darling is a wonderfully escapist caper of a read that will sweep you up into Linda’s world as she navigates it all in the pursuit of that epic love that is always just out of reach. If the Radletts of the 21st century are perhaps a little less extraordinary than the Radletts of the 20th, they still leap off the page with warmth and chaos.

Here are all the old favourites – gorgeous Linda, irascible Uncle Matthew, husky-voiced Bolter – brought up-to-date and reimagined by Knight. It was like being invited into a family, one that has their own idiosyncrasies, language, and being let in on their inside jokes as they make fun of people. For a reader unfamiliar with Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, India Knight’s reimagining would be a perfect comfort read: the kind of book you take into the bath and keep reading even when the water has gone cold, a one-sitting dark-at-four joy. This is a book full of lovely things: clothes and curtains and old Apple Mac computers in “boiled-sweet pink”. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

No one likes people fiddling with their favourites, especially a classic as beloved as Mitford’s tale of interwar aristos the Radletts. And it’s always a delight to find something new to carry you through winter; Knight rises to that challenge with aplomb. Linda remains “soft-shelled as well as soft-hearted, with an overabundance of trusting optimism and friendliness”. There always seems to be another volume of collected letters, or a gorgeous edition, or a biography coming out; the most recent was Laura Thompson’s 2016 group study The Six. So glad I bought this on a whim (read: based on the beautiful cover) when visiting John Sandoe Books in Chelsea!

Delight the bookworm in your life with the gift of this hilarious and heartbreaking modern-day adaptation of Nancy Mitford's classic, The Pursuit of Happiness. Rafiq Hardi Kermanj, founder of the Communist Party of Kurdistan, is forced to flee Tehran for London with his family. Some tweaks reflect contemporary sensibilities: sea swimming replaces hunting, and most of the characters have jobs: Linda runs a Dalston café, and her one true love, Fabrice, owns chic boutique hotels. What could have been a disaster - a modern reimagining of Nancy Mitford's superlative comedy of manners The Pursuit of Love - is an absolute triumph.There is an eclectic supporting cast who are excellently described – Davey and his gut health being very informative! But she rents her own flat in Paris - actually, she rents the one that Nancy Mitford lived in for many years in the rue Monsieur - rather than have Fabrice pay for it all.