I had ordered this from the library and picked it up today. I have to admit to being slightly overawed by the size of it. Usually I start a book and plough on through to the end but I think I'm going to tackle this one in stages. I remember reading a volume of Virginia Woolf's letters, a much smaller book than this one, and by the end all the letters were starting to blur into one. They all seemed to be about getting servants, firing servants or having to cope without servants. I was surprised to see that I am only the second person to borrow
Decca from the library, and the first person was four years ago. I thought that Mitford-mania was quite widespread and would've expected more people to be interested in Decca's letters.
Billy came back with three books from the school book swap last week.
The Monster Story-Teller by Jacqueline Wilson,
Horrid Henry's Underpants by Francesca Simon and
Spider-Man 3: The New Goblin. I can't believe we have another Horrid Henry book in the house!
I had to read this very slowly as well. In fact, I made it my bedtime read and just enjoyed a few letters each night before going to sleep. It's interesting to get a view of the Mitfords from the left-wing perspective. We tend to think of the more right-wing Unity and Diana first I suspect because they were more immediately active in the UK. I hope you enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I've been looking at this very volume in the library for ages, thinking that one day when i had a little more time I would borrow it. Then I spotted a copy in a charity shop and snapped it up. So the library copy did do its job without ever leaving the shelf
ReplyDeleteAnnie - I've decided to read about a quarter of it at a time, with a novel in between each stage. Quite often bedtime is the only chance I get in the day to read.
ReplyDeleteJane - hopefully that is the case here as well. I don't like to think of books sitting unloved on library shelves.