When Nigella Lawson recommends something, you take notice. The Great British Bake-Off judge and How to Eat author recently posted a red-hot book club recommendation to Instagram. She found the book so compelling she wrote: ‘I’ve given copies to so many people already and can’t seem to stop.’
The book is The Great Dictator by Matthew Sweet. Released in September, it’s a page-turning, gossipy, anecdote-packed biography of the famous romantic novelist Barbara Cartland.
A literary legend, Cartland never actually put pen to paper when writing her 723 books. She dictated them to a secretary instead, usually from the comfort of her sofa with one of her Pekingese dogs on her lap. Hence the title of Sweet’s award-nominated book.
Cartland was born in 1901 and died in 2000. She was famous not only for selling 750 million books and writing 25 novels in one year at the height of her career, but also for dressing entirely in pink dresses often designed by British couturier Norman Hartnell. Cartland was as famous for her garish maquillage as for her writing. Sweet reveals Cartland’s famous eye make-up was not achieved through mascara but through shoe polish. This did not stop her receiving 49 marriage proposals in her lifetime.
Hodder & Stoughton The Great Dictator: the book everyone (from Nigella Lawson to Louis Theroux) can't stop talking about...
Hodder & Stoughton The Great Dictator: the book everyone (from Nigella Lawson to Louis Theroux) can't stop talking about...
Sweet also revealed Cartland used to affect a DIY face-lift at home by taping up her face, which could come unstuck during interviews.
Speaking on the podcast Off Air with Jane & Fi last week, Sweet said Cartland ‘thrummed with main character energy’. He added watching old footage of her being interviewed by journalists was like, ‘watching someone being run over by a bus driven by a duchess’.
Nigella Lawson went on to write in her recommendation: ‘I just can’t bear to think of any of my friends missing out on this. Plus, I need them to read it so that I can discuss it in depth with them, as it’s pretty much all I want to talk about right now.’
Having secured a copy, Good Housekeeping is racing through The Great Dictator and can confirm Lawson is right. It is packed with extraordinary morsels and anecdotes about the upper classes in the 1920s, shabby country houses, fancy dress parties and characters called Pingo. The type of book you want to read excerpts out loud to whoever is sat closest to you.
Stick it on your Christmas gifting list too.
