Customer Reviews

Don't Tell Alfred

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Don't Tell Alfred catches up with some of the characters from The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford's two masterpieces. Once again Fanny Logan is the narrator, but this time the action is set in Paris, where Fanny's husband has been appointed the British Ambassador. Fanny has to deal with the problem of the preceding Ambassadress still being in residence and refusing to leave, then with the multiple problems that come with being related to the Radletts, who are made out to be the battiest aristocrats in Britain.

Don't Tell Alfred was written in the late 1950s while Nancy Mitford was living in Paris. A lot of the political inside jokes will fly right over the heads of most readers today, and Mitford's attempts to depict Teddy Boys and rock and roll bands must have seemed unintentionally comic even then.

Even though this is not one of Mitford's best works, it does have her sharp wit and felicitous turns of phrase, and for those alone the book is well worth the reading.

Nancy Mitford wrote this delightful novel in 1960. Lady Wincham, the unworldly wife of an Oxford Don, is apprehensive when she discovers her husband has been appointed the new ambassador to France. When the Winchams arrive at their new residence, they find that the previous ambassador's wife has refused to leave. Mitford gives a tongue in cheek look at the love/hate relationship between England and France. Alfred Wincham must weather a crisis when a teenage rock star causes a riot of fans in front of the official residence. Mitford fills the book with memorable characters, such as Northey, the lovely but impractical secretary, and the rebellious sons who leave their boarding school to take a high paying factory job. Charles-Eduard, the sophisticated French aristocrat, and his English wife, Grace, are on hand to give the Winchams advice on living in France. Mitford enjoys poking fun at both the English and French. Her humor is more sophisticated than P.G. Wodehouse, but will give the reader some good laughs. If you enjoy this, you may want to read Christmas Pudding or the Blessing.

Nancy Mitford continues the lives and loves of the Radlett family and their various off-spring. In this Fanny, our narrator, first met in the impeccably charming novel "Pursuit of Love", is now in France of the 1950's with her teenage boys bordering on adulthood and jobs. Her husband, Alfred, has moved from the safe cloisters of Oxford into the dizzying world of international diplomacy and is Ambassador for France. Their first problem is getting rid of the old Ambassadress, Pauline, who, despite having been despatched from the embassy onto a train the week before, is discovered holding court to French society in a lesser used wing and shows little sign of budging.

Into this all falls Northey, the daughter of Fanny's cousin, Louisa. Northey has been sent by Louisa to act as Fanny's social secretary, but proves herself singularly unsuited to the position being unable to speak French, and it seems pathologically disinclined to do a lick of work. She is in the way of the British upper-classes, immensely charming and so this is really mostly the story of Northey's pursuit of love. Perhaps not as satirically funny as Mitford's first book in the series but it is still an amusing and witty novel. Characters waltz in and out of scenes without any respect for the plot but with enormous charm and verve. You could still read this book without ever having read any of the others in the series but it would certainly make a lot more sense.

this is the end of the immortal tetralogy that began with 'The Pursuit of Love', and reunites the hitherto discrete characters of 'Love in a Cold Climate' and 'the Blessing'. It is as marvellously funny as ever, written with a disarming surface flippancy, full of seemingly alarming plots petering into nothing, like they do in life. The inter-generational conflict is as marked as ever, although more recognisable to us as Fanny and her people finally face the modern world, which she does with remarkable composure, sense and good humour. The intricacies of post-war Europe (Britain desperate for European unity? Arf!), diplomacy, national crises, the rise of the teenager, the tabloids and pop music give a solid grounding to the flights of eccentricity and romantic comedy.

After the Waugh-like economy of 'The Blessing', 'Don't Tell Alfred' is a much freer read, with less ellipses, more detail, and (I'm afraid), a little more padding. Yet for all the big smiles it puts on your face, it reminded me of Anthony Powell's 'Hearing Secret Harmonies', the closing book of his massive novel, 'Dance to the music of time'. Maybe it's because it's the last book of the series, but there is an underlying melancholy throughout, as we see the dying world of the first three novels finally die. Characters alive and vibrant in previous books are suddenly, unemotionally dead; the character of Cedric in 'Climate' undergoes serious revision; and it is dreadful to see mighty Uncle Matthew finally grounded by old age (although there's marvellous life in the old dog yet). The most remarkable thing is Fanny's voice - once a shy, impressionable, envying onlooker, her middle-aged bossiness, confidence (despite the faux-naivete) and control here is beautifully ineffectual. The Yanky Fonzy climax is a great way to end the series.

Fanny Wincham, the first-person narrator of the Radlett family saga is now 45-years-old. It's twenty-five years hence her marriage to Alfred Wincham, Oxford theologian, in "Love in a Cold Climate." She and Alfred have two twenty-something Oxford graduates and two mid-teen Eatonites. One of the teens is adopted and whose mother was Linda Radlett, Fanny's cousin from "The Pursuit of Love."

As the tale "Don't Tell Alfred" unfolds, the shyly inconspicuous Fanny Wincham is consciously aware the times are changing. The familiar culture, landmarks, and mores codified between the two world wars that which have encapsulated her from birth to marriage, are fast vanishing. Her aging Uncle Matthew's small living quarters in London is the only place where vestiges of the old Alconleigh remain. The middle-aged Fanny is resigned to the fate she would never rise above the bread-and butter-world of her acquaintances. So she thinks.

Out of the decaying and languorous orbit of the Oxford life, Fanny and husband Alfred Wincham are thrust into the ostentatious realm of the beau monde and political spotlight. This is due, unexpectedly, of having Alfred appointed as Britain's Ambassador to France. Nothing in her experience could have prepared Fanny to assume the unwonted role of Ambassadress in the City of Light.

No sooner after the Winchams have been installed, the dottiness of the ex-ambassadress and Fanny's children and niece have caused much consternation. These domestic disruptions include animal (lobster) rights to Zen Buddhists going about barefooted on embassy grounds, and all the while across the channel two particular Etonites are missing - last seen riding out of the school grounds in a Rolls Royce.

If these youthful indiscretions were not discretely managed, they could have a deleterious effect on the new Ambassador. The job of damage-control falls naturally on the new Ambassadress, whose modus operandi, to the extent practicable, is: "Don't Tell Alfred."

***

In "Don't Tell Alfred", Nancy Mitford, author of the two earlier Alconleigh saga, "The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate" has, more or less, completed her biographical and family sketches in the person of Fanny Logan Wincham, et al. Although in real life Nancy Mitford was denied motherhood and later divorced, her hope for a happy marriage, parenthood, and domesticity are fulfilled in this book.

Here are two excerpts taken from "Don't Tell Alfred" which illustrate Mitford's tenderness and wit.

In the evocation of Fanny's childhood spent at Alconleigh:

"Uncle Matthew had a little fire in his [London] sitting-room...Alconleigh in miniature. It had the same smell of wood fire and Virginia cigarettes was filled... the Alconcleft Record Rack. They vividly evoke my childhood and the long evenings at Alconleigh with Uncle Matthew playing his favourite records. I thought with a sigh what an easy time parents and guardians had had in those days.... good little children we seem to have been, in retrospect."

Mitford's whimsical plaint also has its serious side. Here in this excerpt, Fanny's friend, Valhubert, laments the demise of the Seine-et-Marne countryside:

"I love this country so much, but now it makes me feel sad to come here. We must look at it with all our eyes because in ten years' time it will be utterly different...no more stooks of corn or heaps of manure... no more horses and cart... Last time I came along this road it was bordered by apple trees--look, you can see the stumps. Some admirer of Bernard Buffet has put up these telegraph poles instead."

***
Though innocuous, some of the author's license with historical events in "Don't Tell Alfred" should be noted.

The "Teddy Boys" and "The Minquiers Islands" are the social and political highlights of 1953, respectively. The former concerned more with the youths of England. The latter involved the sovereignty dispute between France and Britain - Ambassador Wincham - over The Minquiers islets situated between the British island of Jersey and the coast of France. Later that year, the World Court in Hague concluded the sovereignty of the islets belonged to the United Kingdom.

In addition, when Fanny's second son, Basil, talked about his working with his 26-year-old stepfather in the travel business, a reference was made about the happy British tourists whistling "Colonel Bogey March". This whistling tune, of course, was from the film "The Bridge On the River Kwai". The movie was not released until in 1957, however.

I enjoyed this book, but it has to be viewed in context. Readers not familiar with Nancy Mitford or the rest of the background will find the story dated, the characters confusing and much of the satire meaningless. It really is a prerequisite to read Pursuit of Love/Love in a Cold Climate, where most of the characters are first introduced. There have been two excellent productions of this work on PBS, one in the 1980s and one about two years ago. The book was written and takes place about 1955 in Paris, i.e., fifty years ago, so if one doesn't know or isnt willing to look up the political and social background, one also wont get much of the story. Fashions of the time play a role, with one of Fanny's sons being a "Teddy Boy" (I had to look this up on the web). French and English slang has to be viewed in the context of the 1950s. There was no European Union, or even a Common Market yet. Communism and the Cold War were in full swing.
With all that warning, the writing is good and a lot of ridiculously funny situations occur. If you're a Mitford fan and an Alconleigh family fan, this will come off as a good period piece. But dont make it your first Mitford.

The Kindle edition is full of so many typos that, while still readable, it is thoroughly annoying. One short paragraph had three typos and every page seems to have at least one. The story also lacks the keen wit and insight of Love in a Cold Climate, relying instead on pratfalls and totally implausible situations more alongthe lines of Pigeon Pie. While the first two books in this series are ranked among my favorites, this book is a disappointment and not worth reading

I'd put off reading this for a long time simply because I had heard from many that it was an inferior sequel to The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate. I was pleasantly surprised. It may not be up to the standard of the first two books, but I still found it very funny and clearly stamped with Mitford's elegant wit. Paris and the vagaries of French high society make a very good setting for Fanny and Alfred.

The main venom seems to be reserved for the fact that she chose to treat with pop stars in the book (teddy boys). The argument is that she doesn't handle the youth music phenomenon very convincingly. This may be so, but as we see it mainly from Fanny's point of view, I thought it was very much how she would have seen the children. I did not find it to be particularly jarring or inappropriate.

If you are already followed the adventures of Fanny and the Radletts this far, do not be afraid to read Don't Ask Alfred. It is not a good place to begin with the series-- it deserves and needs to be read in order.

I think that I'm going to circle back around and re-read the first two.

This is the first book that I downloaded on Kindle and I was distracted by the number of typos on each page, so much so that I will ask for a refund. I really hope that this is not going to be the case with all ebooks. I found the story light and fluffy and amusing. It is interesting how little has changed in politics and parenting in 50 years.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Don't tell Alfred." The humor is gentle but sly. It was a treat to spend time in the company of characters who never seemed to lose their balance or their wits -- no matter how peculiar the goings on around them.