The Mayfair Bookshop

 by Eliza Knight

This is the fictional story of the life of one of the infamous Mitford Sisters of England, Nancy Mitford.  After turning down two suitors, one of whom she seems to have really loved but with whom she had an on again off again engagement, Nancy marries a third man and enters a very unhappy marriage.  Her husband spends all their money on excesses and mistresses.  She is unhappy but doesn't believe he will give her a divorce.  At the same time two of her sisters and her mother fall under the influence of Hitler.  One of the sisters apparently becomes Hitlers mistress.  This sister later shoots herself in the head.  She ends up a vegetable rather than dead.  One of her other sisters leaves her husband and children for an avowed communist

Nancy and her husband end up working for the war effort in different roles.  Nancy is engaged by the British government to "spy" on French soldiers in England to ferret out any that might be pro-vichy and against De Gaulle.  At times she works helping refugees from Spain and Franco's war, who have fled to France.  She and her husband help to get them to other countries.

She had quite a life.  Eventually she ended up getting a job running a bookstore in London.

There is a second story in the book, a young American woman, who is a book seller, seeking out special titles for private collections is a fan of Mitford and comes seeking to identify who a person Mitford calls Iris really is.  The girl's mother had a Mitford book with a written dedication to Iris in it but apparently she never picked it up from the books store.  The girl is able with the help of others to identify the woman and get the book to her.  She is ultimately offered a job in England where she had a budding romance.

This was an interesting story.  Lots of historical information.  Much better than I expected it to be.