The Bolter

I loaned my copy of 'The  Bolter' by Frances Osborne yesterday to a friend of the author's (George Osborne's wife) who I found myself sitting next to at a lunch in  Lochmaben. I have had this book for some time, and had re - read it on Saturday, unable to put it down. I had taken it to the lunch, a fund-raiser for Moffat Russian Conferences, to remind me to mention the number of Old Etonians who were attracted to Communism in the 1930's, repelled by their parents' and parents' friends' sense of entitlement and promiscuity. The protagonist of 'The Bolter' (the real life model for Nancy Mitford's character in her novel 'The Pursuit of Love') was Frances Osborne's great-grandmother Ida, whose son David became a member of the Communist party.
I very strongly recommend this book: it is well-written and gut-wrenchingly sad without being a 'misery memoir'.

The Bolter, Lady Idina.