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

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The latest, much-anticipated addition to the Mitford shelves is journalist India Knight’s Darling, a modern re-telling of The Pursuit of Love. Linda’s daughter Moira (deathlessly described by Mitford as a ‘howling orange in a fine black wig’) is gaily abandoned in the original; here she remains a beloved, if semi-detached, family member.

This is perhaps because Knight, free from the innate pressures of the roman à clef, has enough distance for clarity. Knight also takes a gleeful magnifying glass to the hypocrisies of modern life, from rigorous dieter Blanche going to restaurants solely for social media content, to Christian making Linda do all the housework, because paying a cleaner is “immoral”. Husband number one, Tony Kroesig, has been perfectly refashioned as the son of a prominent right-winger. However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald.Darling is a wonderfully escapist caper of a read that will sweep you up into Linda’s world as she navigates it all in the pursuit of that epic love that is always just out of reach. But if you adore the source material, I think you are likely to find loads of pleasure in this loving homage. I found myself tearing through, beguiled by Knight's faithful channelling of Radlett ways, wiles and speech patterns . Somehow, India Knight's writing manages to be hilarious, melancholy, insightful, and romantic all at the same time.

She knows she doesn’t want to marry ‘a man who looks like a pudding’, as her good and dull sister Louisa has done, and marries the flashy, handsome son of a UKIP peer instead.In one memorable exchange, the youngest sister Jassy leads: “‘Do you know, ducks have actual penises. It takes chutzpah to tackle a national treasure as jealously loved and gatekept as Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love.