Life in a Cold Climate: Nancy Mitford - The Biography

Great Lives

By: Laura Thompson

Narrated by: Jilly Bond

Bloomsbury presents Life in a Cold Climate by Laura Thompson, read by Jilly Bond.

'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

©2026 Laura Thompson (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc