Nancy Mitford’s China Moment
Posted: January 4th, 2013 | 1 Comment »I came across this picture of Nancy Mitford the other day. Now, I must confess, I’m a fan of Nancy and her writing and a bit of a Mitford’s buff really. But I do not know of any links between Nancy and China (or any Mitford and China for that matter). I do know, thanks to Lisa Hilton’s recently published The Horror of Love, about the relationship between Nancy and Free French leader Gaston Palewski, that Pawelski had once dreamed of travelling to Peking and perhaps gaining a position with the French embassy there. But apart from that – nothing. Of course Nancy was friends with a number of people who did spend time in China, notably her friend Harold Acton.
So where is Nancy here? A restaurant, a reception of some sort at an embassy in London or Paris? – the characters behind her are general happiness/celebration characters. A party at a posh Chinese restaurant in the 1950s perhaps? A wedding? A reception for a visiting Chinese writer? I don’t know….
Well, if anyone can shed any light then please let me know?….nice pearls by the way….
I’d guess it’s one of the items which were acquired by Nancy’s grandfather who, during his service in the Foreign Office, had travelled Asia and had taken some nice pieces of art and furniture back to England. When Asthall Manor was sold most of the furniture was sold, too. However, Nancy somehow kept the Chinese/Japanese (?) screen – I don’t recall the exact circumstances, but it’s mentioned in at least one of the various biographies on the Mitford sisters. Nancy’s grandfather Algernon Bertram Mitford also wrote books on his Asian experience – his most popular one being “Tales of Old Japan.”