My single greatest debt has been to Robert Kee’s chronicle of the year 1939: The World We Left Behind (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984). I wrote with it open beside me, and was also lucky in being able to consult him personally. I was very glad of his help.
I also referred constantly to the 1939 hmso publication, Documents Concerning Anglo-Polish Relations, Cmd 6106, which was a further reminder of what the summer of 1939 was really about.
After these two, I relied most frequently upon A.J.P.Taylor’s English History 1914–1945 (Oxford University Press, 1965), and upon Who’s Who and Burke’s Peerage, the edition of 1938 as well as more up-to-date editions.
In alphabetical order of author, I also consulted the following books:
Arts Council, Thirties: British Art & Design Before the War (Hayward Gallery exhibition catalogue, 1979)
Michael Astor, Tribal Feeling (John Murray, 1963)
Cecil Beaton, Diaries 1922–1939: The Wandering Years (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1961)
Lord David Cecil, The Young Melbourne (Constable, 1939)
Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, ed. Robert Rhodes James (Penguin, 1970)
Peter Collier and David Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama (Pan, 1984)
The Duchess of Devonshire, The House: A Portrait of Chatsworth (Macmillan, 1982)
Frances Donaldson, Child of the Twenties (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1959) Edward VII (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974)
Nina Epton, Love and the English (Cassel & Co., 1960)
Flora Fraser, The English Gentlewoman (Barrie & Jenkins, 1987)
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, The Rise and Fall of the English Nanny (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972)
The Public School Phenomenon (Penguin edn, 1979)
Christian Miller, A Childhood in Scotland (John Murray, 1979)
Shiela Grant Duff, The Parting of the Ways (Peter Owen, 1982)
Robert Graves and Alan Hodge, The Long Weekend (Hutchinson, 1940)
Rosina Harrison, Rose: My Life in Service (Cassell, 1975)
Selina Hastings, Nancy Mitford (Hamish Hamilton, 1985)
Christopher Hibbert, The Court at Windsor (Allen Lane, 1977)
Christopher Hollis (ed.), Death of a Gentleman (Burns Oates, 1943)
Roy Lewis and Angus Maude, The English Middle Classes (Phoenix House, 1949)
Helen Long, Change into Uniform (Terence Dalton, 1978)
Elizabeth Longford, Victoria R.I. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964)
Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels (Quartet edn, 1978)
Nancy Mitford, Noblesse Oblige (Hamish Hamilton, 1956)
Penelope Mortimer, Queen Elizabeth: A Life of the Queen Mother (Penguin/Viking, 1986)
Diana Mosley, A Life of Contrasts (Hamish Hamilton, 1977)
Nicholas Mosley, Beyond the Pale (Seeker & Warburg, 1983)
Malcolm Muggeridge, The Thirties (Hamish Hamilton, 1940)
Priscilla Napier, The Sword Dance (Michael Joseph, 1971)
Harold Nicolson, Diaries and Letters 1930–1964 (Penguin edn, 1984)
Lady Mary Pakenham, Brought Up and Brought Out (Cobden-Sanderson, 1938)
H. Perkin, The Origins of Modern English Society (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969)
Margaret Pringle, Dance Little Ladies: The Days of the Debutante (Orbis, 1977)
Philippa Pullar, Gilded Butterflies (Hamish Hamilton, 1978)
John Scott, The Upper Classes: Property and Privilege in Britain (Macmillan, 1982)
Ruth Sebag-Montefiore, A Family Patchwork (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987)
Godfrey Smith, The English Season (Pavilion Books, 1987)
Philip Toynbee, Friends Apart (MacGibbon & Kee, 1954)
Lady Troubridge, The Book of Etiquette (Kingswood Press, 1987)
The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Michael Davie (Penguin edn, 1979)
Loelia Duchess of Westminster, Grace and Favour (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1961)
Ursula Wyndham, Astride the Wall A Memoir 1939–45 (Lennard Publishing, 1988)