Geoffrey Wheatcroft
A flighty lady novelist and a socialist Chancellor of the Exchequer might not seem to have much in common, but Hugh Dalton and Nancy Mitford were not only both gentlefolk of leftish sympathies. As well, they both led tragic lives. That is the intended lesson of Selina Hastings's excel- lent, bleak Nancy Mitford and one of the, I suspect, unintended lessons of Ben Pimlott's massive and marvellous Hugh Dalton. Apart from being a first-class political biography, it tells the story of a spiritual cripple and a hollow heart.
Among other real-life stories, I also enjoyed Joan Wyndham's Love Lessons (Heinemann). Best novel of the year of the all too few I've read is Mary Gordon's Men and Angels (Cape).
It seems priggish to say so, but I can't recommend a 'most overrated' title. I am in the happy position of not having to review books, or otherwise read them for a living. The books I do occasionally review are ones I want to read anyway. Other- wise, I'm able to close any book which doesn't take my fancy at an early stage, before I'm in a position to decide whether It is only apparently rotten or really so.
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