The Mayfair Bookshop by Eliza Knight is an interesting piece of historical fiction. It tells the story of Nancy Mitford, a socialite in 1930’s and 40’s London, and Lucy St. Clair, a modern day book curator who travels to London to work. Nancy Mitford’s story starts in the early 30’s and covers how she works as an author and her life as a socialite during that time as well as her growing family turmoil. Two of her sisters and her mother support the idea of fascism and are ardent supporters of Hitler and similar regimes. Nancy disagrees with them and instead works to speak out, when possible, against such things. Lucy’s story starts in the modern day when she is offered an opportunity to work temporarily at the Heywood Hills bookshop, a bookshop that had been frequented by Nancy Mitford, in London and decides to take it. While part of that is her desire to expand her work horizons, part of it is also the desire to solve a family mystery. Her family has a first-edition of one of Mitford’s novels that was intended to be gift from the author to someone named Iris but was never received. Lucy wants to identify and find this mysterious Iris.
This book was interesting in many ways. There were two parallel storylines being told throughout the story. The first one is Nancy Mitford who was an actual real-life socialite and author during the time period depicted. The second one is Lucy St. Clair who seems to be entirely fictional. However, it is through Lucy’s story that we also gain additional insight into Nancy’s story as they intertwine. The story ends up being part biography or historical fiction and part mystery which creates an interesting blend of themes. I will admit that I don’t know a lot about Nancy Mitford but the book seems to have been well researched. At the very least it is well written as it really seems to just draw you right in. What I found interesting about that aspect is that while the story jumps from one time to another you only find out the mystery about Iris at the same time as Lucy. The storyline for Nancy only reveals that when Lucy starts figuring it out so we get the reveal at about the same time. I like the way that was played out between the two different stories. The book felt well balanced on that aspect as well as it seemed to spend a pretty equal amount of time on both stories and didn’t tilt one way or the other too much. The plot was pretty simple in that is was basically just a search for who was Iris but the way that was developed over time was well done. On top of all that the characters seemed to be pretty realistic and well developed. Overall a pretty good book and one that gets four out of five stars from me.
This book is a pretty good example of historical fiction and one that was really intriguing in numerous ways. If you enjoy that genre, especially books about WWII, than you might consider trying this one out. It might also appeal to readers who enjoy biographies of authors or books with elements of mystery as well. However, I highly doubt it would hold appeal to readers who don’t like any of those things. In terms of recommended age range it is primarily aimed at adult readers and I would agree with that for the most part. While it is not explicit it does contain numerous mature and adult references which may make it inappropriate for younger readers. At best only older teens and young adults so probably no readers younger than about sixteen should read this. However, it is still a pretty good book so if it sounds interesting I hope you consider trying it. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.