Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford is a satirical novel about fascism in middle England before WW2. Obviously it’s heavily influenced by the experiences of the author’s own family as two of her sisters were involved in the fascist movements at the time, with one of them seemingly in love with Hitler and another marrying the leader of the movement in Britain. I suspect that readers who knew the family or who were in their circle would be able to identify all the references and know who was being parodied but without that inner knowledge readers such as myself have to read the book for its plot and characterisation alone – I understand that family objections to this novel meant that it was not reprinted after its initial publishing date until recently.
The story takes place in and around the small village of Chalford where Anne-Marie Lace, the local beauty, fights boredom and ennui by assuming the role of patroness and muse for the town’s meagre, mercenary, untalented artist colony. Lady Marjorie is hiding out, thinly disguised as a commoner, with her friend Poppy while she tries to decide what to do about the duke she just jilted – should she marry him after all ? Noel Foster has come into some money and he and his freeloading friend Jasper Aspect, are both scheming to marry the village’s wealthy, politically obsessed heiress. This heiress, Eugenia Malmain, is a fanatical follower of the Union Jackshirt movement and enlists local people into the party by force of character and public speeches. The story is about the relationships between the characters and the planning of a garden party which turns into a fascist rally.
The characters are paper thin and the plot has little depth so what holds this book together is the humour and the author’s commentary on the rise of fascism. It’s amusingly done and I enjoyed the story well enough but this book was written before WW2 and when you know what this posturing and dressing up led to it is less amusing than it might have been to the first readers. This is really a bit of an oddity and a book that has to be read very much in its context – some of it is very funny though.
Anne Is Reading 