I read all of Nancy Mitford’s books when I was in my twenties, so that’s a good long while back and they’re due for a re-reading because I remember that I really loved them.

The whole family is fascinating but I always identified with Deborah who became the Duchess of Devonshire. Not that I married a duke or anything, my husband was a Chemistry Ph.D. research student when I married him and I think that a duke would have been an easier option!

Deborah was the youngest of a large family, as I am. Of course her older siblings were horrible to her and I know just how she felt, but I think she probably had a more interesting life and she has outlived the rest of them, being the only one left now.

She’s 90 now and has written her memoir which is called Wait For Me! and that’s one which I’ll definitely be requesting from my library, it sounds like a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the Mitfords and that era. There certainly aren’t many people around who have met both Adolf Hitler and John Kennedy.

If you want a wee taster of what’s in her book, have a look at the interview which was published in The Guardian yesterday.

The Chatsworth estate is another one of those places on my list of ‘places to visit eventually’.