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

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I was good at becoming whatever was required: you could pour me into any vessel and I'd take on its shape" So, this book is actually a retelling of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love. Never read it. But honestly, I didnt expect to be laughing so much, and I now need to read the original! I haven’t read the original upon which it’s based - The Pursuit of Love - but will hunt down a copy to compare.

Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family, and she escapes to London. She knows she doesn't want to marry 'a man who looks like a pudding', as her good and dull sister Louisa has done, and marries the flashy, handsome son of a UKIP peer instead. And what a relief she took the risk. Darling is a real treat, destined to be reread as devotedly as its predecessor.Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family, and moves to London to become a model. She knows she doesn't want to marry 'a man who looks like a pudding', as her good and dull sister Louisa has done, and marries the flashy, handsome son of a UKIP peer instead. But her new life is unromantic: darker, wilder and more complicated than she expected. A savagely funny, bracingly sad, dazzlingly clever reimagining of The Pursuit of Love. I loved it' Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss

It’s an “haute bohemia”, as the papers put it, lifestyle. Between Aunt Sadie’s hippy leanings and Uncle Matthew’s desire to shield his family from fame, the Radlett children are insulated from much of the modern world, home-schooled and banned from electronic devices.

Darling is a witty, homely and comforting novel all orbiting the life of Linda Radlett and her pursuit to find love wherever she can. Exploring the modelling lifestyle in London and the cultural walks of Paris, this eccentric character captured my heart at every angle. The story is told from her cousin Fran’s perspective and we are truly welcomed with open arms by the beautiful Norfolk countryside setting that Knight feasts our eyes with. 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.

After writing an article in The Sunday Times about her daughter's special needs - her youngest child has DiGeorge syndrome. Husband number one, Tony Kroesig, has been perfectly refashioned as the son of a prominent right-winger. He calls his banking colleagues “proper lads” and has a sister called Blanche (“I thought it a sinister name for the offspring of a Ukip supporter,” thinks Fran). But this is only the beginning of Linda's pursuit of love, a journey that will be wilder, more surprising and more complicated than she could ever have imagined. Such a fun and witty read about the Radletts, mainly Linda Radlett, who feels herself destined for greater things in life. It’s about love, family, social class and more. Apparently, a 21st century version of ‘The Pursuit of Love’ (which I’d never heard of, oeps). But something I’m quite curious about now! This book is gorgeous. Full of charm and whimsy, I want so badly to live at Alconleigh. Uncle Matthew is ridiculous and my favourite character with Davey as a close second.He was obsessed with money and status, perhaps because, as Aunt Sadie pointed out, he was one of those people who are clever enough to work out that they aren't a sufficient draw on their own" Anyway, in this version, Uncle Matthew is a travesty, an anachronism in this modern age. There seems to be no reason why he has all his prejudices, and why people e.g. Sadie, put up with them too. However, Jassie is a much more interesting character this time, about the only thing better in the book, even if she didn’t run away. Everyone else just weren’t as good as in the original. This is a Mitford retelling, so the British class obsession features prominently, mainly in the form of working-class Uncle Matthew’s complicated loathing of “poshos”. Knight also takes a gleeful magnifying glass to the hypocrisies of modern life, from rigorous dieter Blanche going to restaurants solely for social media content, to Christian making Linda do all the housework, because paying a cleaner is “immoral”. We might call this, as a genre, novels of the interior: interiors of places, and interiors of people. It’s easy to dismiss the domestic, but if home is where the heart is, the heart is where all humanity happens. And Darling is a very human book, full of feelings and heartbreak and humour and joy.

What a book to begin 2023 with. It is a tad different from what I usually read, but I loved it. I laughed out loud throughout, and thought that the characters were so impeccably described that I feel as though I know them. Emotive, raw and really really thought-provoking. I think we can all relate to the struggles that Linda faces, as well as a loathe for the Christians and Tonys of the world. The fact that it is a modern adaptation has been done so well, it has avoided being a superficial reading of The Pursuit of Love so well. Here are a few of m favourite quotes captured from a few of the chapters: There is a lot of pressure, taking on a novel that is beloved of so many people, me included, and I approached this with some trepidation, but I have to say that this is an absolute triumph.Mess with Nancy Mitford at your peril. Last year, purists recoiled from Emily Mortimer’s (in my mind terrific) BBC adaptation of the author’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love. No one likes people fiddling with their favourites, especially a classic as beloved as Mitford’s tale of interwar aristos the Radletts. So India Knight is a brave woman for retelling it for the 21st century . What an extra treat to have read it right after having read the original Mitford‘s one, all the details India Knight wove in shone even brighter. Fans of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit Of Love will adore this brilliant contemporary take ... The writing is as sharp, the details as perfect, the jokes as funny as [the] original' Daily Mail