Nancy was one of the famous (or infamous) Mitford sisters, the others being Pamela (1907-1994), Diana (1910-2003), who married the British fascist leader Sir Oswald Moseley, Unity (1914-1948), a friend of Adolf Hitler, Jessica (1917-1996), a communist, and Deborah (1920- ), Duchess of Devonshire. (Unity suffered a long lingering death after trying to commit suicide when the Second World War broke out.) They were the daughters of the colourful Lord Redesdale, the original of Uncle Matthew in The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, and were all educated at home, as their father looked on girls' schools as vulgar institutions.

Nancy Mitford led a complicated life, mostly in London and Paris. Following her debut into London society, she remained single, and in the mean time began to write books - generally because she was out of funds and needed a way of making money. In 1933, at the age of 28, she married Peter Rodd, but did not take long to leave him, moving on to a long affair with Gaston Palewski, a smart French-Polish soldier who during the Second World War was the right hand man of the Free French leader General Charles de Gaulle.

Nancy's books are high-spirited and show a keen eye for the eccentricities and the motivations of the English and French upper classes. After beginning as a novelist, Nancy moved on to translation work and to studies of French historical figures.