Don't tell Alfred door Nancy Mitford

Title: Don’t Tell Alfred
Author: Nancy Mitford
Used edition: Reissued Penguin Books editon, 2010
Publishing date: 1e edition, 1960
Number of pages: 230
Published by: Penguin Books, Londen

Summary

Chapter 1
Fanny travels to London to go shopping and visit her son Basil. When she goes to the address he gave her, it turns out that he no longer lives there, but works for his granddad as a travel agent. Fanny visits her uncle Matthew. When Fanny returns to Oxford later that day, she finds Alfred waiting for her. He tells her that he has been appointed to be ambassador in Paris.

Chapter 2
Fanny is worrying about running the embassy in Paris. Philip calms her down a bit.

Chapter 3
Fanny and Alfred settle down at the embassy. Philip stops by to tell that he is in love with Grace de Valhubert, a shared acquaintance. After some time, Fanny discovers that her predecessor, Lady Pauline Leone, has remained at the embassy and is living in a side wing of the building, originally destined for the social secretary. Fanny wants her out as soon as possible, because all the important people are visiting Pauline, but none of them come to visit Alfred and Fanny. It later turns out that Fanny’s mother is indeed remarried, and that her new husband is a travel agent, so the Basil story fits.

Chapter 4
Fanny asks Davey to stop by and help her with Lady Leone, but when he tries she wins him over entirely. In the mean time Fanny hears that the social secretary they hired has married out of the blue and is therefore no longer available. Basil sends a note with his apologies that he is not able to make it to their meeting a couple of days earlier. A little while later Davey suggests to hire somebody to write down al the names of Pauline’s visitors, and to no longer invite these people to important parties and such. Philip thinks it’s a good idea and they start looking for somebody.

Chapter 5
They found somebody for the job, and he takes position. All the visitors are so scared by his presence that they turn around immediately and refuse to return. Pauline still refuses to leave though. One evening, during an important party at the embassy, she does leave with a big show, never to return.

Chapter 6
Shortly after the party Fanny’s new social secretary, Northey Mackintosh arrives. She is completely inappropriate for the job, since she barely speaks French and is way to young, but Fanny and Alfred love her instantly. In the morning Davey announces his return to England. The prime minister stops by and falls in love with Northey, whom he invites to come and have a look in the Chamber for a day. A little while later the French government, already in crisis for quite some time, falls.

Chapter 7
Alfred had received the assignment to make sure that three French islands (Les Îles Minquiers) will become British. An assignment neither Alfred nor the French are waiting for. Northey declares to be madly in love with Philip, but he doesn’t see her because he’s in love with Grace de Valhubert.

Chapter 8
Alfred is in London for two days, so Philip takes Fanny to a dinner party at the Valhuberts. There is quite some talk about politics, but nothing really happens.

Chapter 9
Amyas Mockbar, writer for the Daily Post publishes another negative piece on Fanny and Alfred. Basil turns up out of the blue with a group of tourists and tells a horrible, enormously exaggerated story about how he treated them. Fanny demands them to the embassy right the second, where it turns out they’re actually doing quite well. Basil states that he wants to make his present work his main job and therefore quits all career and education his mother had in mind for him. Later, Mockbar starts intervening in the situation so Basil sends him away by telling him that the group of tourists is radioactive. This action is followed by another negative article on Fanny & Alfred. Fanny talks it over with Philip and they decide not to tell Alfred.

Chapter 10
A new cabinet is formed and Northey turns out to have disappeared overnight. After some asking around, Fanny finds out that she is of to save a load of lobsters that where sent to the embassy by an important person for that night dinner party. Fanny demands that Northey will personally explain to the important person in question that night.

Chapter 11
Northey explains the situation and the poor man is so taken in by her that he forgives her. During the dinner party David turns up out of the blue with his wife Dawn and their child Chang. Fanny sends Northey and Philip to dine somewhere else, so there is room at the table for David and Dawn. David dominates the rest of the party when he stars a conversation with a Mrs Jungfleisch about his ideas and travel plans.

Chapter 12
Alfred notices that the baby was Chinese, but they let it drop for the moment. David and Dawn decide to spend a couple of days in Paris before going further to the east. Amyas publishes another article, this time about David and Dawn. Fanny decides to ignore it for the moment.

Chapter 13
Northey keeps on expanding her list with admirers, but remains madly in love with Philip, who still doesn’t notice her. Basil comes around again. Fanny keeps worrying about the behavior of her kids and decides to negotiate whit Philip about asking Davey over from England to help her out.

Chapter 14
Some important politician (the Dexters) has returned from the Soviet Union. Davey comes over and brings a psychologist. David waits until after the examination but then attacks his mother on her behavior, stating that she has way too Middle-class mentality and is narrow-minded. Fanny restrains and tells Davey that the psychologist is not to return.

Chapter 15
Fanny goes with mister Valhubert to an old duchess who lives out of town. She’s not really looking forward to the journey because she finds Valhubert a bit intimidating and because she has to talk to him about Northey since she’s scared that Valhubert is in love with her. It turns out not to be the case, and Valhubert even shares her opinion that Northey and Philip should become a couple. Even the visit to the duchess goes well.

Chapter 16
When Fanny returns to the embassy Philips tells her that Amyas has published another article. This time it’s an article on Fanny’s mother and a possible marriage between her and mister Bouche-Bontemps (an other important politician). If this is true Bouche-Bontemps’ career will be over, if it’ s not, there is no problem. Fanny has to find out what the situation is, but her mother guarantees her that they were not married. Fanny tells Alfred about her worries concerning the kids, her mother and Northey.

Chapter 17
Fabrice, Fanny’s adopted son, Sigi, Valhuberts son and a guy named Charley have run from Eton. Soon Basil calls to tell they’re with him, but he refuses to give any numbers or addresses. Alfred is furious because the boys haven’t finished school yet, while Basil and David at least did that. The families decide to wait a month, after which Fanny makes a lunch appointment with them at the Ritz.

Chapter 18
Fanny asks them why they ran from school, and they explain that it is because they feel they’re wasting the best years of their lives there. Fanny can’t persuade them to change their minds and returns. A short while after that the Valhuberts manage to get Sigi back. Northey confides to Fanny that this is because Sigi had stolen stuff and was caught by the police.

Chapter 19
David tells that he and Dawn will continue their journey to the east, but that Chang will remain with Fanny, and that the new baby will also be brought to Fanny as soon as Dawn has given birth. Fanny refuses, but in the end it goes exactly as David wants it.

Chapter 20
The politic game between France and England over Les Îles Minquirs result in a big political riot, that makes even Philip nervous.

Chapter 21
One day, a group of young people suddenly stands outside the embassy, and everyone assumes it is a protest over Les Îles. In the middle of the riot, Charlie, Fabrice, Matthew and Yanky Fonzy (their idol, a musician) turn op. It turns out that the young people outside have come for a Yanky Fonzy concert. They’ve already started when Fanny kicks them out.

Chapter 22
The court in the Hague decides that Les Îles belong to England and everything works out the positive way, especially for Alfred.

Chapter 23
Sigi, Fabrice en Charlie continue to manage Yanky Fonzy for a time, but he than decides to go back to his former manager and the boys are actually quite relieved with this because Yanky wasn’t as nice as he at first appeared to be. Over time, they start to behave more and more ‘sophisticated’, as Fanny wants it.

Chapter 24
Philip will be stationed in Moscow after Christmas, to Fanny’s sorrow. Dawn gives birth on Boxing Day in the middle of a snowstorm in Southern-Russia. She and David are taken in by the English ambassadress in the area. Fanny pushes Philip to ask Northey to marry him, and after a small conversation he goes off to do so, but gets a no, since Northey has just gotten engaged to somebody else, a guy named Jacques Oudineau.

Title description
There are several scenes in the book where something has happened or is going on, en characters tell each other not to “tell Alfred”.

Genre
Novel

Place and time
England and France in the 1950’s, especially London, Oxford and Paris.

Style of writing
Mitford has an easy-to-read style of writing with some informal language, especially during conversations. She doesn’t use many difficult words, and changes the tempo of the story once in a while, which makes the book easier to read.

Narrator
Fanny, one of the main characters, narrates the story. Therefore, the book is written in a one narrator style or “ik-verteller” in Dutch.

Themes and motives
Middle-class mentality is a theme that returns several times during the story, most of the time in conversations between Fanny’s generation and that of her children. The first to attack Fanny (and Alfred, etc.) on her middle-class mentality are David and Basil, followed by Northey and later on by Fabrice and Sigi.

Main characters
Fanny Wincham: Fanny is the main character and narrator of the story. She is about 45 years old, married to Alfred, has three sons, of which one is adopted and has lost a forth child when he (or she) was a baby.

Alfred Wincham: Alfred is a professor at Oxford who gets the job of English ambassador in Paris.

Basil Wincham: Basil is Fanny’s and Alfred’s son. Was doing quite well at school when he decided to drop out and work for his grandpa as a travel agent.

David Wincham: The other son, seems to be swiped of the face of the earth, but suddenly returns in Fanny’s life with a wife (Dawn) and a child (Chang). They’re on their way to the east.

Davey Warbeck: Davey is Fanny’s uncle and a widower. He is obsessed with his health, though there’s nothing wrong with him. Helps Fanny out from time to time.

Philip Eliffe-Musgrave: Philip is a friend of the family and former pupil of Alfred. He knows his way around in French politics, and helps Fanny and Alfred out during their first period in Paris.

About the author
Nancy Mitford was born on 28 November 1904 in London, the eldest of the six legendary Mitford sisters. Nancy grew up partly in the 1920s of The Bright Young Things and partly in the politically polarized 1930s. Her sisters Diana and Unity were drawn to the extreme Right and Jessica to the Left. Nancy wavered between the two but could never take politics – or indeed anything– very seriously.
Nancy started writing for magazines in 1929 and became a regular contributor to The Lady.  In 1931, she published her first novel, Highland Fling. Nancy died on 30 June 1973 at home in Versailles. Her ashes are buried at the Church of St. Mary\'s in Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, where her parents and her sisters Pamela, Diana and Unity also lie.

My opinion
I liked “Don’t tell Alfred” because it was well written, had an interesting storyline and wasn’t too difficult. The only problem I had with it, was that the book is a sequel to an earlier work, “The Persuit of Love”. As a reader, you then miss a lot of details in the story.

Lees hier ook de Nederlandse versie van dit verslag.