The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford

by Nancy Mitford

  1. Wasps’ nest.

  2. Birch tree.

  3. Prepare.

  4. Cross beam.

  1. Brave.

  2. Mouth.

  3. Kilt.

  4. Little stool.

  5. Cried, bewailed.

  6. Silk.

  7. Willow tree.

  1 In Love in a Cold Climate

  FIG TREE

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  www.penguin.com

  Highland Fling first published by Thornton Butterworth 1931

  Christmas Pudding first published by Thornton Butterworth 1932

  Wigs on the Green first published by Thornton Butterworth 1935

  Pigeon Pie first published by Hamish Hamilton 1940

  The Pursuit of Love first published by Hamish Hamilton 1945

  Love in a Cold Climate first published by Hamish Hamilton 1949

  The Blessing first published by Hamish Hamilton 1951

  Don’t Tell Alfred first published by Hamish Hamilton 1960

  This selection first published by Fig Tree 2011

  Text copyright © the Estate of Nancy Mitford, 1931, 1932, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1949, 1951, 1960

  Introduction copyright © India Knight, 2011

  Illustration By Lab Partners

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the introducer has been asserted

  These are works of fiction, and all characters are drawn from the author’s imagination. Care has been taken to avoid the use of names or titles belonging to living persons, and if any such names or titles have been used, this has been done inadvertently and no reference to such person or persons is intended

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book

  Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production, Falkirk, Stirlingshire

  ISBN: 978–0–241–95732–5