This book was apparently a retelling of ‘The Pursuit of Love’, which I hadn’t read and didn’t even know about when picking this up. 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. 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. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family, and moves to London to become a model.

Hers is a higgledy-piggledy life that is always buoyed by good cheer, and everyone swept up in her wake is left changed by the encounter, no matter how small or big it is. Their madcap world is peopled by creations such as Fanny’s serial monogamist mother The Bolter and irascible patriarch Uncle Matthew, who enjoys xenophobia and hunting his children with bloodhounds across the Oxfordshire countryside.There are good lovely things, owned by the creative bohemians (squashy sofas, dogs, “square-cut antique emerald cufflinks”), and bad lovely things, owned by the Ukip-voting parvenus (Hunter wellies) and the faux-commie Etonians (slim hardback novels). I found myself tearing through, beguiled by Knight's faithful channelling of Radlett ways, wiles and speech patterns . The Cotswolds of the original has become remote North Norfolk “‘Ah, here we are, the absolute arse end,’ Uncle Matthew would say with deep satisfaction whenever we drove home from somewhere. The characters are all completely recognisable even when they’ve actually been changed - Jassy, for example, is perfect as a modern version of the original.

Es ist wunderbar amüsant, die Charaktere wurden auf überzeugende Weise in die Gegenwart transportiert! Franny, the narrator, is even less inconsequential than in the original; but Knight has so, so much fun with Uncle Matthew, Davey and Jassy, who were always the best characters anyway. As crazy as things get, there are poignant moments scattered throughout which remind us that love is sometimes not what we imagined, but it can also come when we least expect it. Trouble is, Linda’s lived a very sheltered life and tends to see the best in people, even when people aren’t being their best. This book had an interesting storytelling style, where the character at the central of the story (Linda) wasn’t the main narrator (Franny).The neighborhood looks different too, but she’s still the same woman and it’s still the same place, and as the past erupts into view, they slowly collide. After writing an article in The Sunday Times about her daughter's special needs - her youngest child has DiGeorge syndrome. The last few years have seen the 2021 BBC adaptation of Mitford’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love, starring Lily James, and the “Mitford Murders” series by Jessica Fellowes.

Fans will love Knight's clever re-imagining of this classic tale - and new readers will relish the chance to discover the glorious Radletts ― Daily Express --This text refers to the hardcover edition. 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.Husband two, anti-capitalist Christian (nicknamed “posh Trot” by Uncle Matthew), meanwhile, is an Old Etonian who puts about a myth that he grew up on a housing estate in Doncaster. Last year, purists recoiled from Emily Mortimer’s (in my mind terrific) BBC adaptation of the author’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love. Piglet is the searing, unforgettable and original debut which is set to take readers by storm in 2024. This is perhaps because Knight, free from the innate pressures of the roman à clef, has enough distance for clarity. In fact, nobody in my book group really rated it - mostly, the reaction was: "Why bother writing it at all?