Book description
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KATE WILLIAMS
Frederick II of Prussia attempted to escape his authoritarian father
as a boy, but went on to become one of history's greatest rulers. He
loved the flute, and devoted hours of study to the arts and French
literature, forming a long-lasting but turbulent friendship with
Voltaire. He was a military genius and enlarged the borders of his
empire, but he also promoted religious tolerance, economic reform and
laid the foundation for a united Germany. Nancy Mitford brings all
these contradictions and achievements to sparkling life in an
fascinating, intimate biography.
Nancy Mitford was born in London on November 28 1904, daughter of the
second Baron Redesdale, and the eldest of six girls. Her sisters
included Lady Diana Mosley; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and Jessica,
who immortalised the Mitford family in her autobiography
Hons and Rebels
. The Mitford sisters came of age during the Roaring Twenties and
wartime in London, and were well known for their beauty, upper-class
bohemianism or political allegiances. Nancy contributed columns to
The Lady
and the
Sunday Times
, as well as writing a series of popular novels including The Pursuit of
Love and
Love in a Cold Climate
, which detailed the high-society affairs of the six Radlett sisters.
While working in London during the Blitz, Nancy met and fell in love
with Gaston Palewski, General de Gaulle's chief of staff, and eventually
moved to Paris to be near him. In the 1950s she began writing historical
biographies - her life of Louis XIV,
The Sun King
, became an international bestseller. Nancy completed her last book,
Frederick the Great,
before she died of Hodgkin's disease on 30 June 1973.
