One of the great contemporary comic writers, Knight reimagines The Pursuit of Love with this side-splitting account of eccentric families, modern manners and frothy romance wrapped up in the tale of an aspiring model looking for love.
Marooned in a sprawling farmhouse in Norfolk, teenage Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things. She longs for love, but how will she ever find it? She can't even get a signal on her mobile phone.
Linda's strict, former rock star father terrifies any potential suitors away, while her bohemian mother, wafting around in silver jewellery, answers Linda's urgent questions about love with upsettingly vivid allusions to animal husbandry.
Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family, and she escapes to London. She knows she doesn't want to marry 'a man who looks like a pudding', as her good and dull sister Louisa has done, and marries the flashy, handsome son of a UKIP peer instead.
But this is only the beginning of Linda's pursuit of love, a journey that will be wilder, more surprising and more complicated than she could ever have imagined.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241955055
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 206 g
Dimensions: 197 x 129 x 17 mm
It takes a brave author to attempt a contemporary reimagining of such a beloved novel. Luckily, India Knight [...] has courage and talent in spades ... It's beautifully and meticulously done, echoing the detail of the original plot as far as feasible, but with contemporary twists ... Knight is warmer than Mitford, and more comforting - Sunday Times
Fans of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit Of Love will adore this brilliant contemporary take ... The writing is as sharp, the details as perfect, the jokes as funny as [the] original - Daily Mail
The delight is in the details. Knight's are bang on, and there's joy in spotting them ... There's heart as well as humour: it was, and remains, a sincere romance ... Pursuit of Love diehards can rest easy: your blood vessels are safe with this faithful, fiercely funny homage - Spectator
In less talented hands, Knight's retelling of this classic novel might have gone horribly wrong. But Darling is a treat, with whip-smart dialogue, larger-than- life characters, witty observations and a heart-breaking twist ... Fans will love Knight's clever re-imagining of this classic tale - and new readers will relish the chance to discover the glorious Radletts - Daily Express
What could have been a disaster - a modern reimagining of Nancy Mitford's superlative comedy of manners The Pursuit of Love - is an absolute triumph. Romantic, clever and oh-so funny - The i Paper, What We're Reading
A perfect comfort read: the kind of book you take into the bath and keep reading even when the water has gone cold, a one-sitting, dark-at-four joy ... Darling is a very human book, full of feelings and heartbreak and humour and joy - Ella Risbridger, Guardian
Beguiling reimagining ... Spry and wry Darling is delicious - Mail on Sunday, Best New Fiction
[A] lively modern update of a passionately loved classic ... A sizzling modern-day comedy of manners. Plenty of Mitfordian wit but with Ukip peers and mobile phones - The Times, Best Fiction to Read This Autumn
I found myself tearing through, beguiled by Knight's faithful channelling of Radlett ways, wiles and speech patterns ... Reinventing anything so beloved is a formidable challenge, and Knight has risen to it admirably - The Bookseller
A modern retelling of Nancy Mitford's beloved The Pursuit of Love ... Knight nails the wit and satire - Grazia
Sheer brilliance. Darling is hilarious and heartbreaking and vivid and and clever and utterly compulsive - I absolutely loved it - Francesca Segal, author of Mother Ship
Total escapist bliss. A joyous updating of the Mitford classic. I loved every page - Sabine Durrant, author of Finders Keepers
A savagely funny, bracingly sad, dazzlingly clever reimagining of The Pursuit of Love. I loved it - Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss
A triumph! Brilliantly done, faithful but imaginative, tremendously romantic and very funny. Meeting the Radlett family again in the 21st century was an absolute a treat, rather like hearing a new arrangement of beloved old carol and hearing it anew, with trumpets - Nina Stibbe, author of Reasons to be Cheerful
Darling is a black forest gateau of a book: rich characters, sumptuous prose, delicious dialogue, and layered throughout with sharp wit and intelligence (which are even better than the cherry liqueur the gateau calls for). Somehow, India Knight's writing manages to be hilarious, melancholy, insightful, and romantic all at the same time. Treat yourself to this novel - Katherine Heiny, author of Early Morning Riser
India Knight has daringly brought Nancy Mitford’s best loved novel ‘The Pursuit of Love’ to a new generation of readers.
Linda is stuck in a ‘middle of nowhere’ farmhouse in Norfolk without mobile or internet...
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India Knight takes on the mighty task of re-imagining Nancy Mitford's classic comedy of manners, The Pursuit of Love.
There is a lot of pressure, taking on a novel that is beloved of so many people, me...
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Darling by India Knight
Darling is my first read fiction of the year. It is so very English, humorous and brings the essence of a life lived by the Radletts. We never know, might even make you long for a life with...
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