One of Nancy Mitford’s most beloved novels, Love in a Cold Climate is a sparkling romantic comedy that vividly evokes the lost glamour of aristocratic life in England between the wars.

Polly Hampton has long been groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, the fearsome and ambitious Lady Montdore. But Polly, with her stunning good looks and impeccable connections, is bored by the monotony of her glittering debut season in London. Having just come from India, where her father served as Viceroy, she claims to have hoped that society in a colder climate would be less obsessed with love affairs. The apparently aloof and indifferent Polly has a long-held secret, however, one that leads to the shattering of her mother’s dreams and her own disinheritance. When a callow potential heir curries favour with her parents, nothing goes as expected, but in the end all find happiness in their own unconventional ways

Told by Fanny, the childhood friend of Polly, who comes back into the family's sphere after their return from India. The first part of the book is setting up the story around the Montdores, Polly's first season in London, and all the parties and guests that come in and out of their lives. It finishes with Fanny married, Polly causing a disgrace with a highly unsuitable attachment and disinheritance.

Part 2 comes with Fanny getting used to being the wife of a near penniless Don in Oxford and how life isnt how she was led to think it was. Cedric, who the Montdore's estate is now entailed to, arrives from Nova Scotia via Paris, and is certainly not what anyone expected him to be. However, he soon distracts Lady Montdore and all of her set, turning her into a different being - in looks if not personality.

Set in between the wars, some of the characters are outrageous - in their attitudes or behaviour or both. This is stiff upper lip country, where behaviour is tolerated rather than confronted and ostracised. Mitford manages to get their story out, with something that passes as happiness in the end, with a level of humour that can make you laugh out loud in parts. Some of the attitudes towards Cedric and the Lecherous Lecturer are a little close to the bone, but she somehow gets away with it.
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It became more fun as the caricatures developed. ( )

Relaties en verveling in de hogere kringen aan het begin van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Geen woord over de oorlogsdreiging. Alles draait om huwelijken en keuzes. Knap geschreven en inhoudelijk stelt het weinig voor. ( )

Nancy Mitford recupera en Amor en clima frío personajes y situaciones de su anterior novela, A la caza del amor. La acción se traslada en este caso a la espléndida mansión de los Hampton, hogar de Lord y Lady Montdore. Lady Montdore, brillante figura de la aristocracia de su época, está empeñada en arreglar el mejor matrimonio para su hija única, Polly, pero sus maniobras acabarán estrellándose, una tras otra, contra el aparente desinterés de Polly en esos temas. Sorprendentemente la prominente situación social de Polly Hampton, una de las jóvenes más bellas y ricas de su generación, se verá cuestionada por un sonado affaire sentimental que convulsionará a toda su familia.La perspicacia de la autora para reconstruir el ambiente de los círculos aristocráticos británicos de entreguerras nos brinda, una vez más, la oportunidad de asomarnos a un mundo hoy desaparecido. Pero es, sobre todo, el famoso ingenio satírico de Nancy Mitford y su extraordinaria capacidad para modelar personajes y situaciones, lo que convierten a este libro en una emocionante y divertidísima novela

In pains me to admit this, but perhaps I don't really get satire. I mean, I get what satire is, I can recognise it when I see it, but I don't know...I think I'm missing some small point that would allow me to revel in it.

I'm a bit flummoxed on how to review Love in a Cold Climate. I really enjoyed it; I looked forward to reading it and finding out what happened next. I bonded with the narrator. It's written beautifully with a lot of wit and humour.

But the story failed to move me in any significant way. I know the characters were all superficial, shallow and selfish and I know they all sort of got what was coming to them in the end, good or bad, but there wasn't any crisis or climax, really. And as I write this it occurs to me that this is probably because the back of the book spoils the gasp! moment. If I'd read this cold, I'd have been shocked. Still not moved in any meaningful way, but at least shocked.

Oh well, it was still a fun read, if a long one. I can imagine re-reading it again someday when I want to lose myself in the past. ( )