Buy new:
-30% $21.15
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: SellersPremium
$21.15 with 30 percent savings
List Price: $30.00

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 12 hrs 30 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$21.15 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$21.15
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Sold by
SellersPremium
Sold by
SellersPremium
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$12.98
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Wednesday, May 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$21.15 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$21.15
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Deborah Devonshire
+ Follow
Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire
+ Follow
See all
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

In Tearing Haste: Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor Hardcover – October 12, 2010

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 165 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$21.15","priceAmount":21.15,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"21","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"15","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"FD0Qxq7fRqWYwmIhlwUgNS6id6Dn%2Fl1rxpXbYyrNIi%2B2mj2MjbXYpzOKHdj02ZCe9Y42BnpmNo7RHTKxVTmfAfKzR%2BIvfPQnrJFyGVBDx8c8zDDfpohbE%2BcAxXyDPPVq%2F6hY1ExJ2Ns5jTzRhyDEWahzEu6P5DVA2bwdFTN38eHmf2X02C1nlw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$12.98","priceAmount":12.98,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"98","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"FD0Qxq7fRqWYwmIhlwUgNS6id6Dn%2Fl1r%2F9kf3hmfN2XgNUkbaYWPEL99s6Ci41BkpNQnt4Ak6V4fuL%2BqBAiIbVW%2B%2BUKPITMOndUeTpW%2FQSpAYy28pvKY9Xh6U1fygPCskk4NeODctY97lqjuye1NV7BgJzqq%2Bw2jjia%2F3TqHGzUU%2F0SAT6pa87L7omP93qol","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In the spring of 1956, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, youngest of the six legendary Mitford sisters, invited the writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor to visit Lismore Castle, the Devonshires’ house in Ireland. The halcyon visit sparked a deep friendship and a lifelong exchange of highly entertaining correspondence. When something caught their interest and they knew the other would be amused, they sent off a letter—there are glimpses of President Kennedy’s inauguration, weekends at Sandringham, filming with Errol Flynn, the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, and, above all, life at Chatsworth, the great house that Debo spent much of her life restoring, and of Paddy in the house that he and his wife designed and built on the southernmost peninsula of Greece.

There rarely have been such contrasting styles: Debo—smart, idiosyncratic, and funny—darts from subject to subject, dashing off letters in her breezy, spontaneous style. Paddy, the polygot and widely read virtuoso, replies in the fluent polished manner that has earned him recognition as one of the finest writers in the English language.

As editor Charlotte Mosley writes, “Much of the charm of the letters lies in their authors’ particular outlook on life. Both are acutely observant and clear-sighted about human failings, but their lack of cynicism and gift for looking on the bright side bear out the maxim that the world tends to treat you as you find it. On the whole, the people they meet are good to them, the places they visit enchant them, and they succeed splendidly in all they set out to do. This lightheartedness—a trait that attracted many, often less sunny, people towards them—gives their letters an irresistible fizz and sparkle.”
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    New York Review Books
  4. Publication date
    October 12, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    6.4 x 1.1 x 9.4 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1590173589
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1590173589
  8. See all details
Next page
Layla
"Layla" by Colleen Hoover for $7.19
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more

Frequently bought together

In Tearing Haste: Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor
$21.15
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by SellersPremium and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
+
Wait for Me!: Memoirs
$16.67
Get it as soon as Wednesday, May 15
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by TheBookwormBooks and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Spanning 1954 to 2007, the volume reads like an accidental memoir of a disappearing world stretching from the manor houses of the English aristocracy to the olive groves of Greece, its people and places rendered with a kind of care that’s becoming scarce in our age of helter-skelter communication. At the same time, the book’s title, a phrase deriving from Leigh Fermor’s habit of dashing off messages ‘with a foot in the stirrup,’ captures the vigor and bustle of the lives that nourished the correspondence….In Tearing Haste is engaging from start to finish. There isn’t a dull letter among Charlotte Mosley’s selections. Even her annotations, often incorporating information from the book’s two correspondents, are as surprising as they are informative….More than anything else, the collection is important as an addition to Leigh Fermor’s body of work, both because his letters constitute a larger portion of the volume and because the writing in them harmonizes with the books that established his literary reputation." —The Nation

"This is a book that evokes a lost world of glamour, intelligence and personal scruples. The memory of its pristine landscapes, resolute gaiety and eccentric characters leaves a glorious afterglow." —Sunday Telegraph

"Spanning half a century, bursting with wit and conviviality…the result is surely one of the great 20th-century correspondences." —The Observer (London)

"This marvelous correspondence celebrates two of the most important things in the world, courage and friendship" —The Spectator

"Highly engaging exchanges of mutual joie de vivre." —The Times

"As full of fizz and conviviality as a glass of champagne" —Metro

"A feast for reading…An enchanting book." —Irish Examiner

"Chatty, witty, teasing, gossipy, relentlessly cheerful and with more than a hint of modest good sense, her short replies bounce off his beautiful essays like volleys of tennis balls off a cathedral." —The Scotsman

About the Author

Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915-2011) was an intrepid traveler, a heroic soldier, and a writer with a unique prose style. After his stormy schooldays, followed by the walk across Europe to Constantinople that begins in A Time of Gifts (1977) and continues through Between the Woods and the Water (1986), he lived and traveled in the Balkans and the Greek Archipelago. His books Mani (1958) and Roumeli (1966) attest to his deep interest in languages and remote places. In the Second World War he joined the Irish Guards, became a liaison officer in Albania, and fought in Greece and Crete. He was awarded the DSO and OBE. He lived partly in Greece—in the house he designed with his wife, Joan, in an olive grove in the Mani—and partly in Worcestershire. He was knighted in 2004 for his services to literature and to British–Greek relations.

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (1920-1914) was the youngest of the six noted Mitford sisters. She became chatelaine and housekeeper of one of England’s greatest and best-loved houses, but following her husband Andrew’s death in 2004, she moved to a village on the Chatsworth Estate, where she died.

Charlotte Mosley lives in Paris and has worked as a publisher and journalist. She is the editor of Love from Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford, The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, and The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ New York Review Books; 1st US edition (October 12, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1590173589
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1590173589
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.1 x 9.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 165 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Deborah Devonshire

    Deborah Devonshire

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  2. Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire

    Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
165 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephanie Patterson
5.0 out of 5 stars One who keeps tearing around. . .
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2011
Verified Purchase
I admit to a soft spot for reading about the Mitfords and for reading their correspondence. So this book was right up my street. I loved reading The Duchess of Devonshire's wonderful chat about running an estate, attending the inauguration and funeral of John Kennedy (she was amused that during the inauguration activities the press had to run around trying to figure out just who she was), and the marital problems of "my friend" (the Prince of Wales). She is well-bred and doesn't really gossip, noting only that the had heard that Princess Diana was "not easy." Despite all the glittering people she talks about, you never forget that she also knows an awful lot about sheep and chickens

Patrick Leigh Fermor is that rare creature, a man of action and a man of letter. His books about his travels ("A Time of Gifts," "Between the Woods and the Water") are incredibly well written. Many consider him the finest travel writer ever. His letters are filled with detail and the reader feels he is experiencing adventure right along with the author. During WWII he was involved in the battle of Crete and was captured a German general. His death, earlier this year at the age of 95, was received more coverage in Britain than it did in the States.

I started and ended my day with these letters. Both correspondents were great companions and I hated to see the book come to an end
23 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Clarice
4.0 out of 5 stars in tearing haste
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2012
Verified Purchase
I really loved this book. It is a wonderful window into the social attitudes and life of the times.As letter wrting was an art in that period , it is beautifully written and the characters of those concerned are exposed as one reads. If you enjoyed the books by the Mitford sisters you will enjoy this
Helpful
 Report
Sarita
5.0 out of 5 stars The most bingeworthy reading in a very long time.
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2022
Verified Purchase
Fascinating exchange of gossip and witty remarks between old friends who knew everybody who was anybody in Twentieth Century Great Britain. Makes for delightful reading.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Ol' Jon
5.0 out of 5 stars In Tearing Haste: Letters of Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Lost Art Saved and Shared
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2014
Verified Purchase
If you enjoy literate, amusing letters that build a picture in your mind's eye of the people who wrote them, this is a book for you. Yes, it starts in a long-ago era, post WW II, and yes, the letter writers are a British aristocrat and a writer who lived an unconventional, traveling, writing, hob-nob-with-the-aristocracy international set, and who was a war hero, but you end up admiring friendship and entering into the charmed circle of wit, hopes, laughs, sorrows, loves, hard work, and family and friends. A very good read.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Trini
3.0 out of 5 stars Levels of Love and Life
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2013
Verified Purchase
Am presently reading it and enjoying it. The reason for the three stars is that I think it has limited appeal. I enjoy it for several reasons...among them-- being an Anglophile, I like the flavor of the reactions of "real" people in -what is for me- unusual situations...their comings and goings are quite different from those of the average American!...and I am interested in reading about the way of life as it was once lived in Britain. It also calls to mind some of the headlines about the Mitfords and their quite public father as I remember reading them in my younger days.

This is not a book about the ponderous events of the time but about socially active people in their own milieu.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
Once I got into the rhythm of their speech, I am finding this just delightful. Two people who were super talented yet so down-to-earth. Thanks to Google, I'm also finding all kinds of interesting info about many of the characters and places they refer too. It's the kind of book you can pick up anytime and always be guaranteed a chuckle, or a . glimpse of some far-off locale inhabited by fascinating people.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Helga
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
So that is how the other half lived... Spirited and witty.
Helpful
 Report
lady susan
5.0 out of 5 stars LASTING FRIENDSHIP
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2010
Verified Purchase
this is a wonderfully entertaining book. sometimes poignant,also
very funny,two people who became such dear friends over the years,
and shared their happy times as well as their sad times,i have a feeling that when one of them dies, the other will be truly heart broken. i wish there had been more letters available to read. i can highly recommend this book. Park Top
30 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars in tearing haste
Reviewed in Germany on May 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
schönes, humorvoll geschriebenes buch, sehr guter zusatand
Report
Martin Dwyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Mitford Insight
Reviewed in France on August 30, 2012
Verified Purchase
Shows another side of Debo Mitford and the great wit of Patrick Leigh Fermor. Debo a self confessed phillistine writes her letters well Unputdownable.
Report
Geoffrey Woollard
5.0 out of 5 stars Charlotte Mosley has hit Mitford pay dirt again!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2008
Verified Purchase
I gave a golden glowing review of "Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters," and, using gold-mining metaphors, Charlotte Mosley (married to a 'Mitford' nephew) has tapped the precious Mitford treasure pit again with "In Tearing Haste," a compilation of splendid letters exchanged over many years by her aunt-by-marriage, Deborah (Duchess of) Devonshire (née Mitford), and her fine and faithful friend, the writer and World War II hero, Patrick (Paddy) Leigh Fermor. (The relationship is supposed to have been platonic, but I really don't give a damn if it has been more, as it was and is most clearly a closely intimate and loving one).

I don't know how many people write 'proper' letters these days, and I have no idea how many such people also retain their correspondence, but it is evident that Mrs Mosley has hit pay dirt in a big way with her editing of 'Mitford' family letters, and she does it with panache and knowledgeable and loving skill, for her selections are superb and her notes are almost as entertaining and informative as the letters themselves. The latest work is well up with the earlier.

But no editor can hit pay dirt without the auriferous ore being present, and the letters themselves are pure gold. Those from 'Darling Paddy' are longer, more descriptive and better written, coming as they did from an extraordinarily good writer in his own right, but those from 'Darling Debo' are both lovely and loving - and amazing, too, coming as they did from a lady who claims never to have read a book (I don't believe a word of it!).

The two writers struck chords (I'm changing metaphors now) with each other for fifty-plus years and I doubt that we shall see, hear or be permitted to read the like again. I loved the book and commend it to readers who enjoy having an arm's-length or proxy relationship with such unusual and interesting people who lived (and are still living, thank goodness) through such interesting times in such splendid style.

Buy several copies of this book for Christmas presents, read one yourself, and then share the hundreds of historical and literary nuggets as widely as you can!
16 people found this helpful
 Report
Patty
4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining
Reviewed in Canada on April 10, 2021
Verified Purchase
Great for both Fermor fans, and Mitford enthusiasts.
Report
Cornwallgurl
4.0 out of 5 stars All about the unofficial jester of Chatsworth
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2018
Verified Purchase
Finally got round to reading this, having had it sitting on my Kindle for a while. I'd read all round the topic (both of PLF's journeying books, about which I'm on record of being highly underwhelmed by!) Letters between the Mitford sisters, Anne de Courcy's biography of Diana Mitford, James Lees-Milne's diaries and much else. So, most of the names/personae were familiar, which probably helped, otherwise it could read like a list of names and/or be totally confusing. It was telling that the Duchess's notes were literally dashed off, and all the fresher and funnier for it, whereas PLF's were polished and honed and gone over - quelle surprise. However, I did enjoy it and it did somewhat improve my impression of PLF, although perhaps once having captured a real live duchess (and duke) as friends, he didn't have to try quite so hard. There was a certain amount of grovelling for invites to the various Devonshire abodes, and much fulsome thanking, but hey ho, the man certainly sang for his supper. I do have the vision of him as a sort of unofficial jester, though. It would appear that the Duchess felt that this action man war hero would be a good companion for the Duke with his various problems, and indeed one hopes their jolly expeds may have helped him. Putting someone who drank quite as copiously as PLF alongside an alcoholic seems slightly perverse, however. The pivotal mutual acquaintance would appear to be Daphne Fielding, a long term friend of Debo's) who was married to the Marquis of Bath before running off with Paddy's best pal, "Xan" Fielding. When after 25 years the latter bunked off with another woman, I imagine correspondence was a tad strained.
As others have said, this is not a particularly sequential set of letters, and there are long gaps, but the large cast of aristocratic, political and artistic elite do come to life, although I was left goggling at the constant bed hopping & remarrying and wondering how many men were actually straight in this convoluted friendship circle.
I was greatly helped once I realised (half way through) that you can now access the footnotes on Kindle directly.
2 people found this helpful
 Report