NANCY MITFORD (1904-1973) was the eldest daughter of Lord Redesdale. She grew up with her five sisters and one brother on the family estate. A beauty and a wit, she became one of the bright young things of the 1920s, and a close friend of Henry Green, Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, and their circle. She began writing novels while in her twenties. In all, she wrote eight novels and four biographies (of Madame de Pompadour, Louis XIV, Voltaire, and Frederick the Great).

LAURA THOMPSON is a writer and journalist. She won the Somerset Maugham Award for her first book, The Dogs, and is the author of the critically acclaimed biography of Nancy Mitford, Life in a Cold Climate; The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters; and Agatha Christie: An English Mystery.