This is the second of two books that take place within the social context of this group of friends and acquaintances. In this book we follow along the trials and tribulations of Polly Hampton, a young woman who more or less becomes a fallen heiress but works her way back to some kind of set of graces through ingenuity and charm.
I wasn’t a giant fan of the first book by Nancy Mitford, nor did I really like a different novel of hers I read some time later. And this one is more or less in the same boat.
Something I really did like about this book and I am sure this holds true for the first book, but it’s been a few years since I’ve read it, and that is it’s narrative distance. The point of view in this book is really fascinating. We are having this book narrated from the point of view of presumably Nancy Mitford, friend to but not family to the characters we’re watching here. All through out the novel we’re watching these characters from afar as our narrator focuses the primary of her energies to her own life and choices, so the main characters themselves are described in some off-hand and third party kind of ways. So the book itself has the kind of casual air of gossip to it as we are having our focus split on a couple of different stories. It’s entirely well-handed throughout and familiar as well. It’s casually quite brilliant at it all.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Cold-Climate-Radlett-Montdore-ebook/dp/B003F3PLBC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2QORXDEMAJX7S&dchild=1&keywords=love+in+a+cold+climate&qid=1585519342&s=books&sprefix=love+in+a+c%2Cstripbooks%2C147&sr=1-1)