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In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
 
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In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor (Hardcover)

by Patrick Leigh Fermor (Author), The Duchess of Devonshire (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £25.00
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Frequently Bought Together

In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor + The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters + Home to Roost: And Other Peckings
Price For All Three: £29.42

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray (4 Sep 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0719568587
  • ISBN-13: 978-0719568589
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 15,082 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #62 in  Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Europe
    #67 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Essays, Journals & Letters

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Product Description

Review

'These stories are so well published, so thoroughly venerated as to have taken on the glossy, impermeable quality of myth'

(The Times )

'The reason that they still engage and entertain is precisely because they were masters of the unexpected while remaining true to their individual points of view’

(Sunday Times )

‘An impressive array of personalities and dramas’

(Good Book Guide )

‘Captivating collection ... Deborah’s life [is] brilliantly encapsulated –and parodied- in her more  succinct letters ... their exchanges achieve the goal of all good correspondents: to bring out  the best in one another’

(Anglo Hellenic Review )

‘Last autumn’s literary non-fiction hit’

(Bookseller )

‘Highly entertaining...as full of fizz and conviviality as a glass of champagne’

(Metro )

Product Description

In 1956, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire youngest of the six Mitford sisters invited the writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor to visit Lismore Castle, in Ireland. This halcyon stay sparked off a deep friendship and a lifelong exchange of highly entertaining letters. 


 


There can rarely have been such contrasting styles: Debo, unashamed philistine and self-professed illiterate, darts from subject to subject, dashing off letters but hitting the nail on the head again and again without even looking, while Paddy, polyglot, widely-read prose virtuoso, replies in his characteristic fluent, polished manner.


 


Prose notwithstanding, they have much in common: enjoyment of life, youthful high spirits, generosity and lack of malice. There are glimpses of Kennedys inauguration, weekends at Sandringham, filming with Erroll Flynn and, above all, of life at Chatsworth, which Debo spent much of her life restoring, and of Kardamyli, the home that Paddy built in his beloved Greece.



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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
77% buy the item featured on this page:
In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor 4.4 out of 5 stars (5)
£17.49
Home to Roost: And Other Peckings
7% buy
Home to Roost: And Other Peckings 4.2 out of 5 stars (5)
£6.00
In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
6% buy
In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
£5.39
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters
6% buy
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters 4.2 out of 5 stars (23)
£5.93
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Such warmth of characters and such humour - Must read 2008!!, 10 Sep 2008
If you have read and loved Charlotte Mosley's wonderful Mitford Letters this will definitely not disappoint!!

Their writing styles, and indeed life styles are markedly different - Paddy's erudite, descriptive, precise and exuberant letters serve to remind us why he is often considered the greatest travel writer of our time. His wonderful descriptions of his adventures bring to life so many different places - from Devon to the Andes to Eastern Europe and back to Derbyshire. He tells stories about upsetting Somerset Maugham with his stammering jokes; about his feat of swimming across the Hellespont aged 69; about rounding up wild horses in Chagford; and about his time building his home Kardamyli with his wife Joan.

DD writes a shrewd description of life as a Duchess restoring Chatsworth. She never fails to raise a smile with her insightful and honest accounts of a whirlwind of social engagements with such a wide variety of well-known twentieth century figures. From Evelyn Waugh, whom on one occasion sends the famously self-professed illiterate DD a proof of his new book, The Life of Robert Knox with the inscription "You won't find a word in this to offend your Protestant sympathies" - the pages were in fact completely blank. She describes he friendship with "The Loved One" (John F Kennedy) and dinners with the characterful Bohemian Iris Tree. Intimate encounters with the Royal Family - including one such "cotton dress" chance meeting with The Queen Mother - who Debo famously refers to as 'Cake' - at the Tate Gallery. Interspersed with these engagements she writes to Paddy with stories of her family - Andrew and her three children and certainly her Sisters and of course, she details her incredible renovation of the beautiful Chatsworth House. Despite leading such an incredible life, she always remains so down to earth - on one occasion Mario Testino arrives at Chatsworth to do a photo shoot for Vogue's 90th birthday. DD is photographed with her granddaughter Stella Tennant, she describes the shoot:

" [Stella's] Hair skewbald/piebald, all colours & stuck up in bits. THEN they produced "shoes" with 6 inch heels. More stilts - she could hardly put one foot in front of the other, wobbling & toppling.
We looked just like that Grandville drawing of a giraffe dancing with a little monkey. I was the monkey."

The truly charming thing, however, about this excellently edited collection, is the genuine love and friendship that is so abundant in these letters. Mosley describes DD and PLF as sharing "youthful high spirits, warmth and generosity". This comes across in the letters so wonderfully. This book is a lovely account of two such different characters who share a marvellous appetite for life and an even greater friendship.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Charlotte Mosley has hit Mitford pay dirt again!, 19 Oct 2008
By Geoffrey Woollard (Cambridgeshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I gave a golden glowing review of "Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters," and, using gold-mining metaphors, Charlotte Mosley (married to a 'Mitford' nephew) has tapped the precious Mitford treasure pit again with "In Tearing Haste," a compilation of splendid letters exchanged over many years by her aunt-by-marriage, Deborah (Duchess of) Devonshire (née Mitford), and her fine and faithful friend, the writer and World War II hero, Patrick (Paddy) Leigh Fermor. (The relationship is supposed to have been platonic, but I really don't give a damn if it has been more, as it was and is most clearly a closely intimate and loving one).

I don't know how many people write 'proper' letters these days, and I have no idea how many such people also retain their correspondence, but it is evident that Mrs Mosley has hit pay dirt in a big way with her editing of 'Mitford' family letters, and she does it with panache and knowledgeable and loving skill, for her selections are superb and her notes are almost as entertaining and informative as the letters themselves. The latest work is well up with the earlier.

But no editor can hit pay dirt without the auriferous ore being present, and the letters themselves are pure gold. Those from 'Darling Paddy' are longer, more descriptive and better written, coming as they did from an extraordinarily good writer in his own right, but those from 'Darling Debo' are both lovely and loving - and amazing, too, coming as they did from a lady who claims never to have read a book (I don't believe a word of it!).

The two writers struck chords (I'm changing metaphors now) with each other for fifty-plus years and I doubt that we shall see, hear or be permitted to read the like again. I loved the book and commend it to readers who enjoy having an arm's-length or proxy relationship with such unusual and interesting people who lived (and are still living, thank goodness) through such interesting times in such splendid style.

Buy several copies of this book for Christmas presents, read one yourself, and then share the hundreds of historical and literary nuggets as widely as you can!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Poetry, 31 Dec 2008
By Mr. R. D. M. Kirby "Dick Kirby" (Suffolk, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I had already read `The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh' which had also been edited by Charlotte Mosley, who had made such a superb job of it that I requested `In Tearing Haste', secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't be disappointed - and of course, I wasn't.

The letters by `Debo', Duchess of Devonshire bear all of the Mitford touches - the strangulated vowels, as in `Lorst' and `Gorn' - and the hilarious peremptory commands - `Do admit'! For one who states she never reads a book (and this, I believe, is nothing more than a blatant lie!) and who was unkindly referred to by sister Nancy as `Nine' since this, averred Nancy was Debo's mental age, Her Grace has done herself proud - changing around the fortunes of Chatsworth, the family seat, and writing a fascinating series of books.

Her style is the perfect foil to Paddy Leigh Fermor, war-time secret agent, adventurer, writer and traveller and this selection of letters, written during a period of over fifty years is a terrific criss-cross of ideas and news. Every letter written by Leigh Fermor reads as though he's written it for a book - and a best-selling one at that. The book reflects a time when Britain was regarded, quite properly as `Great' and it is a funny and nostalgic read.

I have no idea what Charlotte Mosley intends to edit next but whatever it is, I shall be queuing up to buy it.
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5.0 out of 5 stars "In Tearing Haste"
In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
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