Synopses & Reviews
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood of writers, agitators, and icons. Here she recalls anecdotes about famous friends from Evelyn Waugh to John F. Kennedy; her struggles and success at Chatsworth, Englands greatest stately home; and of course tales of her beloved chickens, which the Duchess began raising as a child for pocket money. All in One Basket brings together two volumes of her writings and provides a disarming look at a life lived with great zest and originality by a "national treasure" (The New York Times).
Review
"There is and can be no sentence in this book which sums its author up, but two of those which stay in my mind are: ‘I buy most of my clothes at agricultural shows, and (on receiving a moss tree as a present) ‘I pulled it to bits to see how it was made. So, now you think youve got her? Far from it. Shes also mad about Elvis Presley."---Tom Stoppard, from the introduction of
Counting My Chickens "At the heart of this collection are three pieces of a different order and all remarkable: diaries of the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1961, of his funeral two years later and an account of the ‘Treasure Houses of Britain exhibition in Washington in 1985….Her account of Kennedys funeral…is so heartfelt it is difficult to read."---Alan Bennett, from the introduction of Home to Roost
"Mitford says she writes ‘solely in an effort to amuse, and amuse she does….Mitford writes about what she knows or remembers: country life, chickens, stately homes, gardening, and famous friends. Open Mitfords book to peep into a vanishing world; keep turning the pages to laugh and learn a thing or two about birds, trees, and tiaras."---The Charleston Post and Courier
Review
"There is and can be no sentence in this book which sums its author up, but two of those which stay in my mind are: ‘I buy most of my clothes at agricultural shows, and (on receiving a moss tree as a present) ‘I pulled it to bits to see how it was made. So, now you think youve got her? Far from it. Shes also mad about Elvis Presley."---Tom Stoppard, from the introduction of
Counting My Chickens "At the heart of this collection are three pieces of a different order and all remarkable: diaries of the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1961, of his funeral two years later and an account of the ‘Treasure Houses of Britain exhibition in Washington in 1985….Her account of Kennedys funeral…is so heartfelt it is difficult to read."---Alan Bennett, from the introduction of Home to Roost
"Mitford says she writes ‘solely in an effort to amuse, and amuse she does….Mitford writes about what she knows or remembers: country life, chickens, stately homes, gardening, and famous friends. Open Mitfords book to peep into a vanishing world; keep turning the pages to laugh and learn a thing or two about birds, trees, and tiaras."---The Charleston Post and Courier
About the Author
Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was brought up in Oxfordshire, England. In 1950 her husband, Andrew, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, inherited extensive estates in Yorkshire and Ireland as well as Chatsworth, the family seat in Derbyshire, and Deborah became chatelaine of one of Englands great houses. She is the author of Wait for Me!, Counting My Chickens and Home to Roost, among other books, and her letters have been collected in The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters and In Tearing Haste: The Correspondence of the Duchess of Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Following her husbands death in 2004, she moved to a village on the Chatsworth estate.