THE LETTERS OF
NANCY MITFORD AND
EVELYN WAUGH,
edited by Charlotte Mosley
Date of First Publication: 1996
(Evelyn Waugh to Nancy Mitford, 24 October 1948)
‘The manuscript [Love in a Cold Climate] was a delight to read, full of wit & fun & fantasy. Whole passages (e.g. Cedric's arrival & first evening) might be used verbatim in a book. The theme is original & promising. There is not a boring sentence . . . But it isn't a book at all yet. No more 40 hour week. Blood, sweat & tears. That is to say if you want to produce a work of art. There is a work of art there, lurking in a hole, occasionally visible by the tip of its whiskers.’
(Nancy Mitford to Evelyn Waugh, 8 October 1948)
‘You are really kind to have taken so much trouble. I agree with nearly all you say - I've always known that Boy was too sketchy, & that the beginning is clumsy. I have re-written the whole thing once already you know. What I wonder is whether I can (am capable of) doing better . . .You must remember that I am an uneducated woman (viz punctuation) & that I have done my best & worked hard already. What you say about the minor characters I don't agree with. Your complaint is that they are not photographs of existing people, but one must be allowed to invent people if one is a novelist.’