The Blessing

When Grace Allingham, a naive young Englishwoman, goes to live in France with her dashing husband she finds herself overwhelmed by her husband's French notion of marriage--which includes a permanent mistress--that sends her back to London with their son, Sigismond, in tow. While others urge the couple to reconcile, little Sigi applies all his juvenile cunning to keep his parents apart.

Nancy Mitford, daughter of Lord and Lady Redesdale and the eldest of the six legendary Mitford sisters, was born in 1904 and educated at home on the family estate in Oxfordshire. She made her debut in London and soon became one of the bright young things of the 1920s, a close friend of Henry Green, Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, and their circle. A beauty and a wit, she began writing for magazines and writing novels while she was still in her twenties. In all, she wrote eight novels as well as biographies of Madame de Pompadour, Voltaire, Louis XIV, and Frederick the Great. She died in 1973. More information can be found at www.nancymitford.com.