“The Bookseller’s Secret” - Michelle Gable

 📚 A WWII novel involving the infamous Mitfords? Count me in! Gable flows between 1942, 1946, and the present. I enjoyed all the portions pertaining to the Mitfords tremendously (they provide great material). 

1942 - Diana (the fascist) is in jail for treason; Unity survives a suicide attempt when H*tler’s plans to attack the UK became evident; Nancy meanwhile, was housing 50 Blitz evacuees at her family’s estate.

Later - Nancy needs a job - her father (a peer) has squandered the family wealth. “Pigeon Pie” was a flop (it was about the so-called Phony War time period, but was disastrously released at the same time as the fall of France when the mood of the populace was not amenable to satire).

1946 - Nancy is in France with the Colonel, her French lover on whom she was initially tapped to spy by Churchill and Co.

📚 The “present” portions revolving around fictitious Katie and Simon were irksome at times; it felt like they were trying too hard to inhabit some cool, gen X space. Ick. 

📚 TBS gives us a literary mystery similar to “The Lost Bookshop”minus the magical aspects of that book.

📚 I’ve read 2 Nancy Mitford novels and a couple of books about her; I would like to read “The Pursuit of Love” and “Wigs on the Green” which feature in TBS.

📚 A handy guide for anyone reading “The Pursuit of Love” based on details I picked up in TBS:

Farve = Uncle Matthew 

Muv = Aunt Sadie

Tom = Matt

Fanny = all Mitford girls, but mostly Debo

Lord Merlin = Lord Berners (Nancy’s friend, owner of estate where she wrote “POL“)

📚 A few quotes stood out to me. In the first, Katie neatly summarizes the theme of “The Pursuit of Love”. The second quote has Nancy referring to the awful circumstances of the Blitz and how Londoners had to just get on with it despite the madness of daily life. The final quote neatly juxtaposes the Brighton Young Things finding means to continue to enjoy life with a reckless abandonment in sharp contrast to the average citizen. 

📚 Gable kindly provides real-life epilogues for several real characters to save the reader digging around for details.