Darling

Author India Knight
Narrator Sophie Winkleman
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publish Date 20 October 2022
Run Time 8 hours
Format Audio
Genre Family life fiction, Humorous fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Marooned in a sprawling farmhouse in Norfolk, teenage Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things. She longs for love, but how will she ever find it? She can't even get a signal on her mobile phone. Linda's strict, former rock star father terrifies any potential suitors away, while her bohemian mother, wafting around in silver jewellery, answers Linda's urgent questions about love with upsettingly vivid allusions to animal husbandry.

Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family, and moves to London to become a model. 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. But her new life is unromantic: darker, wilder and more complicated than she expected.

Then one day, at her lowest ebb, Linda spontaneously boards the Eurostar to Paris. There she is swept up in a feverish love affair that will upend her life completely.

A razor-sharp, laugh-out-loud novel that re-imagines the cast of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love.

Praise for India Knight

'Almost unbearably funny' New Statesman

'Tender, tough, schmaltzy, witty and heart-warming all at once. Knight has a great comic touch' Metro

'Brilliantly funny and knowing . . . Clara Hutt could eat Bridget Jones for breakfast' Evening Standard

© India Knight 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

It takes a brave author to attempt a contemporary reimagining of such a beloved novel. Luckily, India Knight […] has courage and talent in spades … It’s beautifully and meticulously done, echoing the detail of the original plot as far as feasible, but with contemporary twists … Knight is warmer than Mitford, and more comforting

Sunday Times

Fans of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit Of Love will adore this brilliant contemporary take … The writing is as sharp, the details as perfect, the jokes as funny as [the] original

Daily Mail

The delight is in the details. Knight’s are bang on, and there’s joy in spotting them … There’s heart as well as humour: it was, and remains, a sincere romance … Pursuit of Love diehards can rest easy: your blood vessels are safe with this faithful, fiercely funny homage

Spectator

In less talented hands, Knight’s retelling of this classic novel might have gone horribly wrong. But Darling is a treat, with whip-smart dialogue, larger-than- life characters, witty observations and a heart-breaking twist … Fans will love Knight’s clever re-imagining of this classic tale – and new readers will relish the chance to discover the glorious Radletts

Daily Express

What could have been a disaster – a modern reimagining of Nancy Mitford’s superlative comedy of manners The Pursuit of Love – is an absolute triumph. Romantic, clever and oh-so funny

The i Paper, What We're Reading

A perfect comfort read: the kind of book you take into the bath and keep reading even when the water has gone cold, a one-sitting, dark-at-four joy … Darling is a very human book, full of feelings and heartbreak and humour and joy

Guardian

Beguiling reimagining … Spry and wry Darling is delicious

Mail on Sunday, Best New Fiction

[A] lively modern update of a passionately loved classic … A sizzling modern-day comedy of manners. Plenty of Mitfordian wit but with Ukip peers and mobile phones

The Times, Best Fiction to Read This Autumn

I found myself tearing through, beguiled by Knight’s faithful channelling of Radlett ways, wiles and speech patterns … Reinventing anything so beloved is a formidable challenge, and Knight has risen to it admirably

The Bookseller

A modern retelling of Nancy Mitford’s beloved The Pursuit of Love … Knight nails the wit and satire

Grazia

Sheer brilliance. Darling is hilarious and heartbreaking and vivid and and clever and utterly compulsive – I absolutely loved it

Francesca Segal, author of Mother Ship

Total escapist bliss. A joyous updating of the Mitford classic. I loved every page

Sabine Durrant, author of Finders Keepers

A savagely funny, bracingly sad, dazzlingly clever reimagining of The Pursuit of Love. I loved it

Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss

A triumph! Brilliantly done, faithful but imaginative, tremendously romantic and very funny. Meeting the Radlett family again in the 21st century was an absolute a treat, rather like hearing a new arrangement of beloved old carol and hearing it anew, with trumpets

Nina Stibbe, author of Reasons to be Cheerful

Darling is a black forest gateau of a book: rich characters, sumptuous prose, delicious dialogue, and layered throughout with sharp wit and intelligence (which are even better than the cherry liqueur the gateau calls for). Somehow, India Knight’s writing manages to be hilarious, melancholy, insightful, and romantic all at the same time. Treat yourself to this novel

Katherine Heiny, author of Early Morning Riser

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