The famous Mitford sisters (six in total) were the daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale and his wife Sydney Bowles. The wealthy and aristocratic Mitford family were members of the British social elite class and the six women were prominent figures in British social and political life throughout their lives. Not only did they make well-connected marriages and/or engage in sexual affairs with powerful members of British and European society, but their often controversial personal and political choices, lifestyles, and careers influenced the course of European public discourse during and after the 1930s. The Mitford family was strongly divided in their political and nationalist beliefs and are often viewed as a microcosm of the tensions in interwar Britain. Today, the Mitford sisters are considered historically significant as a social study of the time—especially of the agency and influence of women.

Nancy Mitford (1904-1973), one of the central characters in this novel, was the eldest Mitford child. She was a novelist, biographer, and journalist, known for her left-leaning politics. Her early novels attracted little notice although her later semi-autobiographical works, The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love in a Cold Climate were acclaimed. Nancy Mitford’s romantic life was troubled.