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

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To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Her first venture into literature was 2000’s My Life on a Plate, charting a woman’s complicated family life which was more or less a fictionalised account of her own story. Delight the bookworm in your life with the gift of this hilarious and heartbreaking modern-day adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s classic, The Pursuit of Happiness.

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. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. Last year, purists recoiled from Emily Mortimer’s (in my mind terrific) BBC adaptation of the author’s 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love. 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. It’s easy to dismiss the domestic, but if home is where the heart is, the heart is where all humanity happens.So glad I bought this on a whim (read: based on the beautiful cover) when visiting John Sandoe Books in Chelsea! 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. They also have their own codes, words, abbreviations – which as a mother of 4, and with our own family ‘things’, I totally understand. All the old faces are there, ripe to take on the modern world; Franny’s mother The Bolter fits surprisingly well into the 21 st century, as does Lord Merlin, who is now an avant-garde fashion designer, and who was before his time in the original in any case. Big love too for Nina Stibbe - the Lizzie Vogle trilogy are inspired works of comic fiction, full of well drawn observations of people's little quirks and foibles.

I laughed out loud throughout, and thought that the characters were so impeccably described that I feel as though I know them. a recruitment officer representing four Russell Group universities asked an undercover reporter for the Sunday Times.In the author’s reimagining, Linda and her siblings grow up as “utter freaks” on the sprawling Alconleigh farm in north Norfolk. OK – so I need to hold my hands up first and say I’ve never read ‘The Pursuit of Love’ by Nancy Mitford – so whilst this is a retelling – it was a brand new story / set of characters for me – but as a fan of India Knight’s writing I requested an ARC from NetGalley. After writing an article in The Sunday Times about her daughter's special needs - her youngest child has DiGeorge syndrome. Without a formal education Linda’s head is permanently in the clouds, but her natural curiosity and sharp mind means she has no qualms about her unconventional schooling, and absolutely no pretentions. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

What it lacks in original storytelling, Darling more than makes up for in atmosphere and fresh jokes. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here.So fresh, fun and full of heart, charm and whimsy - and that devastating ending comes all the more sharply because the reader has been having such a good time with the Radletts (extra points for including a reference to Cromer! Marooned in a sprawling farmhouse in Norfolk, teenage Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things. You can almost feel Knight giggling as she invents a new lexicon for the Radletts: “If people were short – all the Radletts were long-limbed and rangy and viewed short people with fascination and envy (‘It must be so cosy to be short,’ Linda said) – we’d say they were ‘still growing’, even if they were adults: ‘What’s she like? Linda's strict, former rock star father terrifies any potential suitors away, while her bohemian mother, wafting around in silver jewellery, answers Linda's urgent questions about love with upsettingly vivid allusions to animal husbandry.