Darling: A razor-sharp, gloriously funny retelling of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love

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His violently arbitrary, Nicky Haslam-style hatreds pepper the pages: enoki mushrooms, thin socks or open-mouthed Instagrammers. The Cotswolds of the original has become remote North Norfolk “‘Ah, here we are, the absolute arse end,’ Uncle Matthew would say with deep satisfaction whenever we drove home from somewhere. Then, as the weeks went by and the giddiness subsided, the immensity — and effrontery — of the task lumbered monstrously into view. Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family and moves to London to become a model.Matthew is a retired rockstar, Sadie is his earth mother wife – and they home school their children – and Franny. Armed with a key and new knowledge about his parents' past, Nik sets out to unlock the secrets that his mother has been holding onto his whole life. Also, any book that manages to make me laugh out loud (or snort) multiple times, has a special place in my heart.

The book then follows all of the family – but primarily Linda on her pursuit of love, taking in London and Paris as well as Norfolk. I actually snorted with laughter in several bits of it - particularly when Uncle Matthew and Davey get obsessed with Instagram. The characters are all brilliantly written – with Uncle Matthew my favourite, with some amazing one liners – and lists of things he hates. Marooned in a sprawling farmhouse in Norfolk, teenage Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things. This blog hosts a selection of articles written from 2013 to the present, mostly focusing on my book reviews, which are uploaded frequently.Or rather, she treats tiny little things as if they were international catastrophes and international catastrophes as if they were tiny little things.