A biography of the most brilliant of the Mitford sisters, who dazzled and scandalised interwar high society with their wit and sometimes controversial lifestyles.

'The book is a gem: fresh, intelligent and assured' Sunday Times Nancy Mitford was, in the words of her sister Lady Diana Mosley, 'very, very complex'. Her biographies and novels, her journalism, and the vast body of letters to her family, friends such as Evelyn Waugh, and to the great love of her life, Gaston Palewski, all tell an intriguing story. Drawing from these, as well as conversations with Mitford's two surviving sisters and colleagues, prize-winning author Laura Thompson has fashioned a portrait of a contradictory and courageous woman. Thompson approaches her subject with wit, perspicacity and affection, while eschewing clichés about the eccentricities of the Mitford clan. Life in a Cold Climate is full of the sound of Mitfordian laughter; but tells also the often paradoxical and complex story beneath the smiling and ever elegant façade. 'A brilliant study, original, perceptive, passionate' Selina Hastings 'Well-nigh perfect' Diana Mosley, Literary Review

"The book is a gem: fresh, intelligent and assured" - Sunday Times

"Award-winning writer Laura Thompson seeks to explain a sophisticated, glamorous literary heroine... [A] good read'" - This England

"This refreshing edition allows us to enjoy again a shrewdly argued, thoroughly engrossing, life affirming tribute to the lady [Nancy Mitford]. We can rediscover for ourselves that distinctive and timeless joie de vivre" - Glasgow Herald