The Bookseller's Secret

by Michelle Gable

  THE COLONEL (1901–1984)

  Born into a Polish-Jewish family that settled in France, Gaston Palewski was educated at the École du Louvre, École Libre des Sciences Politiques, and the Sorbonne, with postgraduate studies at Oxford. His Air Force career proved his worth as a military man.

  As in the book, the Colonel became General de Gaulle’s chef de cabinet before ultimately resigning in January 1946, when de Gaulle stepped down as head of the French Provisional Government. The Colonel would go on to hold many positions of importance, both elected and appointed, including vice president of the National Assembly, ambassador to Italy, and several posts within Prime Minister Georges Pompidou’s cabinet.

  The Colonel was awarded many French decorations in his lifetime, including the Légion d’Honneur. He married Helen-Violette de Talleyrand-Périgord, duchesse de Sagan, in 1969, and visited Nancy on the last day of her life.

  Gaston Palewski died of leukemia in 1984, at the age of eighty-three.

  PETER RODD (1904–1968)

  After Nancy moved to France, she still supported Prod, and he continued his longtime affair with Nancy’s cousin, Adelaide Lubbock. Though he and Nancy were divorced for over ten years when he died, Peter’s body was found in Malta with one of Nancy’s letters clutched in his hand.

  LADY HELEN DASHWOOD “HELLBAGS” (1899–1989)

  Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t dig up much on Lady Helen Dashwood, otherwise known as “Hellbags.” The details in the book, including her orgies, her nickname, and her reputation as “the most beautiful brunette in London,” are true to what I uncovered about the spirited, fiercely intelligent woman. Lady Montdore in Love in a Cold Climate is based on Hellbags.

  JIM LEES-MILNE (1908–1997)

  James Lees-Milne was instrumental in the transfer of country houses from private ownership to the National Trust, including Hellbags’s West Wycombe. Dubbed by some as “the man who saved England,” Jim was a prolific diarist and would go on to publish his journals along with many other books.

  In 1951, Jim married Alvilde, Viscountess Chaplin, a prominent gardening and landscape expert. Both Jim and Alvilde were bisexual and she was said to have had affairs with many prominent women, including Eddy’s cousin Vita Sackville-West. Jim and Alvilde remained married until her death in 1994. Jim passed away several years later, at the age of eighty-nine.

  EVELYN WAUGH (1903–1966)

  There is much to say about Nancy’s rival, mentor, and favorite correspondent. Waugh was a social climber. He was drunken, snobbish, and rude. He hated his own children and feared the end of aristocracy.

  A late-in-life Catholic convert, the ever-grumpy Waugh became a literary star when his book Brideshead Revisited was published in 1945. He wrote nearly twenty novels in his lifetime.

  Evelyn married twice, first to the Hon. Evelyn Gardner, otherwise known as She-Evelyn, the model for the “Bolter” character in The Pursuit of Love. He married Laura Herbert in 1937, and together they had seven children, six of whom survived infancy.

  Like most, Nancy found Evelyn vexing, but it’s clear there was a deep love and respect between the two. When Nancy heard news of his passing on the French wireless, she was distraught. “Yes I’m in despair about Evelyn,” she wrote to Decca, “he was such a close friend & I suppose knew more about me than anybody.”

  She added: “I’m burying my head in the sand & have bought a house in Versailles in which to moulder until I fall down dead as Debo’s children confidently expect me to at any minute.”

  EDDY SACKVILLE-WEST (1901–1965)

  Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville, lived a life of angst. Though he understood he should be grateful for the privilege he was born into, he felt incapable of true joy on account of his delicate constitution and generally poor disposition. A devotee of the occult, Eddy was every bit the hypochondriac as portrayed by his alter ego, Uncle Davey, in The Pursuit of Love.

  Eddy was a novelist, music critic, and member of the House of Lords. He also served on the board of the Royal Opera House. At the age of sixty-three, Eddy died suddenly of asthma-induced cardiac failure at his house in Ireland. Along with Evelyn, Eddy was one of the few people in Nancy’s circle whom she outlived.

  HEYWOOD HILL EMPLOYEES

  After a brief engagement to Jim Lees-Milne, Lady Anne Gathorne-Hardy married Heywood Hill in 1938. They would go on to have a second daughter in addition to Harriet, who was born during the war.

  In the early nineties, Anne and Heywood sold their bookshop to Debo’s husband, Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire. Upon his death in 2004, his ownership passed to his son, Peregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire, known as “Stoker.” Heywood died in 1986, after a long battle with Parkinson’s, and Anne lived on another twenty years, passing away in 2006 at the age of ninety-five.

  Heywood hired Mollie Frieze-Green (or Friese-Green, the spelling varies) a bit later than my novel suggests. Though Mollie was single when hired, she’d eventually marry Handy, the new employee they took on at the end of the war.

  THE MITFORDS

  The bits I read made me think once again how ghastly all Mitfords sound, though of course in real life ha-ha they are ideal.

  —Diana to Deborah, 11 August 1975

  LORD (1878–1958) AND LADY (1880–1963) REDESDALE

  Though Muv and Farve never repaired their relationship, they also never formally divorced. Following Tom’s death, Lord Redesdale retreated to Inchkenneth, before ultimately moving to Redesdale in Northumberland, the family’s ancestral home. Having never fully recovered from Tom’s death, Farve died a recluse at the age of eighty.

  Lady Redesdale cared for her injured daughter until Unity’s death in 1948 and resided at Inchkenneth after Farve left. In early 1963, Nancy, Debo, Diana, and Pamela gathered on the wretched island to care for their eighty-three-year-old mum in her final days. In true Sydney fashion, she was furious with her daughters for “dragging her back from the grave.”

  Nancy would famously say that, although she respected Muv, she did not love her, for the simple fact Sydney never loved her in return. About this, Nancy claimed no ill will and believed it was well within a woman’s right to like or dislike her children.

  PAMELA (1907–1994)

  Described as “relaxed and ordinary,” Pamela was the rural Mitford, the sister who loved cooking, gardening, and animal husbandry. After the war, she and her husband, Derek Jackson, heir to the News of the World fortune, moved to Ireland as tax exiles. They divorced in 1951, after fifteen years of marriage, and Pamela became instantly wealthy. Derek would marry a total of six times.

  Following their divorce, Pamela began a longtime affair with an Italian horsewoman, Giuditta Tommasi. Decca described this as Pamela becoming a “you-know-what-bian.” Pamela died at the age of eighty-six due to a blood clot after a fall.

  TOM (1909–1945)

  As in the book, Tom Mitford died after being shot in Burma and contracting pneumonia in a field hospital. He’d chosen fighting in the Pacific Theater because he had so many German friends.

  By all accounts, Tom was smart, talented, and charming. Sheilah Graham called him “one of the handsomest men I had ever seen.” Tom was the ultimate “Hon,” polite and courteous, and utterly comfortable in a house filled with girls. Despite this bright and sparkling façade, Tom had a dark side and endured many bouts of depression. It was said that nobody knew quite how he felt about anything.

  DIANA (1910–2003)

  After Nancy’s death, Diana learned that her sister had reported her Fascist activities to the MI5 and Home Office at the war’s onset. This was a stunning revelation but later documents revealed Diana’s ex-father-in-law, Lord Moyne, also reported her “extremely dangerous character.”

  Following the war, Diana and Oswald Mosley maintained homes in Ireland, London, and Paris. Though known for entertaining, the
y were banned from all functions at the British Embassy and denied passports until 1949. In France, they held a second marriage ceremony because Hitler had their original marriage license.

  Diana published four books, including three that might be described as “memoir” and one biography about Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, a close friend. Diana died at age ninety-three, following a stroke. A diamond swastika was found among her personal effects.

  UNITY (1914–1948)

  Unity was conceived at her parents’ gold prospecting claim in (ironically) Swastika, Ontario. Unity’s health never improved after her attempted suicide, and she remained incontinent and childlike until her death from pneumococcal meningitis at thirty-three. As the writer Jan Dalley said, “Unity found life in her big family very difficult because she came after these cleverer, prettier, more accomplished sisters.”

  JESSICA (1917–1996)

  The hunger marches of the 1930s put young Decca on a path toward activism, and her raison d’être became to defeat Fascism at any cost.

  Decca emigrated to the United States with her first husband in 1939, starting in Washington, DC, before ultimately moving to Oakland, California, where, as a young widow, she involved herself in left-wing politics. Decca trained people to organize at the California Labor School and was fiercely passionate about civil rights, which is how she met her second husband, attorney Robert Treuhaft. Treuhaft ran a “radical” law firm that would one day employ an intern named Hillary Rodham.

  Decca left the American Communist Party in 1958. In 1963, she published her hit exposé The American Way of Death and would go on to write many other books. She became a minor celebrity and was close friends with Maya Angelou.

  Decca was the only sister who drank heavily and smoked, and she succumbed to lung cancer in 1996. True to her beliefs, she had a plain, low-cost funeral and a burial at sea. Ten years later, the writer J.K. Rowling would cite Jessica Mitford as “my most influential writer, without a doubt.”

  DEBORAH (1920–2014)

  Debo’s husband became heir to the Duke of Devonshire when his older brother, who was married to Kick Kennedy, died in combat. Debo’s father-in-law passed in 1950, and her husband ascended to the dukedom, making Debo the Duchess of Devonshire. In their roles, she and Andrew received all the best invitations, from President Kennedy’s inauguration to the wedding of Charles and Diana.

  Debo gave birth to seven children, only three of whom survived infancy. Her third-born child, Peregrine, inherited the Duke of Devonshire title and is the owner of the Heywood Hill bookshop.

  Like many of her sisters, Debo wrote several books, and she helped turn Chatsworth House into one of Britain’s most successful stately homes. In 1999, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) by Queen Elizabeth II, for her service to the Royal Collection Trust.

  Debo died in 2014, at the age of ninety-four. It’s believed she was the last living Briton to have met Hitler.

  SELECTED LIST OF SOURCES

  Acton, Harold. Nancy Mitford: A Memoir.

  Beaton, Cecil Walter Hardy, Sir. Memoirs of the 40’s.

  Bloch, Michael. James Lees-Milne: The Life.

  Cooper, Diana and Viscount John Julius Norwich. Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her Son John Julius Norwich 1939-1952.

  Dashwood, Francis, Sir, editor. The Dashwoods of West Wycombe.

  De-la-Noy, Michael. Eddy: The Life of Edward Sackville-West.

  Devonshire, Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish. Wait for Me!: Memoirs.

  Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine. The House of Mitford.

  Hastings, Selina. Evelyn Waugh.

  ———. Nancy Mitford.

  Henrey, Robert. The Incredible City.

  ———. The Siege of London.

  Hill, Heywood. A Bookseller’s War.

  Hilton, Lisa. The Horror of Love: Nancy Mitford and Gaston Palewski in Paris and London.

  Hutton, Mike. Life in 1940s London.

  Lees-Milne, James. Ancestral Voices.

  ———. Diaries, 1942-1954.

  Lovell, Mary S. The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family.

  Mitford, Jessica. Decca: Hons and Rebels.

  Mitford, Nancy. The Blessing.

  ———. The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill.

  ———. Don’t Tell Alfred.

  ———. Highland Fling.

  ———. Love from Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford.

  ———. Love in a Cold Climate.

  ———. The Pursuit of Love.

  ———. Wigs on the Green.

  Mosley, Charlotte, editor. The Letters of Nancy Mitford & Evelyn Waugh.

  ———. The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters.

  Mosley, Diana. A Life of Contrasts.

  ———. The Pursuit of Laughter.

  Sweet, Matthew. The West End Front: The Wartime Secrets of London’s Grand Hotels.

  Taylor, D.J. The Lost Girls: Love and Literature in Wartime London.

  Thompson, Laura. Love in a Cold Climate: Nancy Mitford, the Biography.

  ———. The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters.

  Waugh, Evelyn. The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh.

  The

  Bookseller’s Secret

  Michelle Gable

  Reader’s Guide

  Questions for Discussions

  Discuss the similarities between Katie’s and Nancy’s stories. How have society’s expectations for women changed or not changed over the decades?

  Which of Nancy’s friends did you enjoy most? Why?

  How much did you know about Nancy Mitford before reading the novel? Did you learn anything new or surprising about her or her family? Which Mitford family anecdote was your favorite?

  For Katie, the Heywood Hill bookshop is the perfect escape from her troubles. If you could escape to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

  Did you understand why Katie withheld her profession from Simon? Have you ever struggled to reconcile your personal and professional lives? Is it possible to keep them separate these days?

  Discuss Nancy’s decision to drop the memoir project in favor of what would become The Pursuit of Love. Did you think this was a wise choice given her family’s notoriety? Should family stories remain private?

  Did you agree with Felix’s action at the end of the novel to protect Nancy’s privacy? What role should famous figures play after their deaths? Should their secrets stay secrets?

  If you haven’t already, will you be reading any of Nancy Mitford’s novels in the future?

  Also by Michelle Gable

  A Paris Apartment

  I’ll See You in Paris

  The Book of Summer

  The Summer I Met Jack

  ISBN-13: 9780369702111

  The Bookseller’s Secret

  Copyright © 2021 by Michelle Gable Bilski

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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