A visit to my local secondhand bookshop today paid off handsomely.  I found 2 ‘new’ Nancy Mitford biographies for my collection.

Attentive readers might remember from an early post that Mitford’s biography of Frederick the Great was the first Versailles Century book that I read as a youngster.

Frederick the Great by Nancy Mitford.

That book then led me to her Madame de Pompadour and The Sun King, which were my introduction to the world of Versailles.

Madame de Pompadour and The Sun King by Nancy Mitford.

The books in the photo above are my personal copies.  I’ve had them for decades.  I once had a copy of Frederick the Great, too, but some years ago I donated it to the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario.  Actually, I’ve donated several hundred titles in various media to that fine institution.  You can read about my donations here: http://www.uwo.ca/pridelib/site/Collections/Donor%20Collections1/David%20Gemeinhardt%20Collection.html