Inevitably, Linda eventually rebels against her sheltered childhood, running away to London to be a model and then jumping into a duo of ill-fated marriages, which is Knight’s cue to skewer certain quarters of the British ruling class. Husband two, anti-capitalist Christian (nicknamed “posh Trot” by Uncle Matthew), meanwhile, is an Old Etonian who puts about a myth that he grew up on a housing estate in Doncaster.

No one likes people fiddling with their favourites, especially a classic as beloved as Mitford’s tale of interwar aristos the Radletts. Marooned in a sprawling farmhouse in Norfolk, teenage Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things.This is a Mitford retelling, so the British class obsession features prominently, mainly in the form of working-class Uncle Matthew’s complicated loathing of “poshos”. She knows she doesn't want to marry 'a man who looks like a pudding', as her good and dull sister Louisa has done, and marries the flashy, handsome son of a UKIP peer instead. Purists greeted last year’s television adaptation much as cat-owners might welcome a partially eviscerated mouse. You have to hand it to the Scottish government: the deletion of WhatsApp messages is good preemptive news management, whether accidental, by default or deliberate. This is the difficult question when considering a retelling of a book that feels as fresh and alive as Mitford’s 1945 classic.

Their parents are global rock icon Matthew and former private chef Sadie, who herself is the daughter of an Indian diplomat and an English debutante. And it should be said: Linda teaches us to love people and the world with one's whole heart and I think we'd all do well to live up to her example. There are good lovely things, owned by the creative bohemians (squashy sofas, dogs, “square-cut antique emerald cufflinks”), and bad lovely things, owned by the Ukip-voting parvenus (Hunter wellies) and the faux-commie Etonians (slim hardback novels). Darling is the story of her growing up: the people she meets; the men she falls in love with; and her friendship, enduring and eternal, with Frances.

This book was apparently a retelling of ‘The Pursuit of Love’, which I hadn’t read and didn’t even know about when picking this up. There is a lot of pressure, taking on a novel that is beloved of so many people, me included, and I approached this with some trepidation, but I have to say that this is an absolute triumph. Well-written and replete with deadpan humour, sarcasm and irony it’s a banter-filled, yet poignant tale.

Darling is wrapped around Nancy Mitford’s, ‘Pursuit of Love’ and India Knight could not have captured the heart of the story any better than she has in this beautiful piece of literature. I cannot even begin to explain the language used, the feelings evoked and the actual laughs out loud that occurred during this entire read. If you aren’t familiar with the original, you might find the protagonist - and her tendency to fall in love with various ‘Bottoms’ (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream - a bit puzzling. There were a lot of sidetracked and half-completed conversations - I could picture them all talking while eating, cleaning the house, watching TV and doing a million other things at the same time. Or rather, she treats tiny little things as if they were international catastrophes and international catastrophes as if they were tiny little things.Their unique, somewhat cloistered, childhood let their imaginations run rife; growing up is an adventure. Knight manages to be faithful to that beloved comfort read whilst updating the setting and characters to the present (albeit still in a bohemian-aristo thoroughly English way). There is something discombobulating about characters you know being almost but not quite themselves. India Knight does a fantastic job of capturing the essence of Mitford's original story but brings overlays modernity that makes it more relatable for today. I haven’t read the original upon which it’s based - The Pursuit of Love - but will hunt down a copy to compare.

Husband number one, Tony Kroesig, has been perfectly refashioned as the son of a prominent right-winger.

Also, any book that manages to make me laugh out loud (or snort) multiple times, has a special place in my heart. I have done ever since I picked up a copy of Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison when I was 13 and would spend hours laughing over every sentence. My favourite passage is the list of Things That Uncle Matthew Doesn't Like - absolute comedy genius. So fresh, fun and full of heart, charm and whimsy - and that devastating ending comes all the more sharply because the reader has been having such a good time with the Radletts (extra points for including a reference to Cromer! Although Linda believes she wants to be free from the family confines, really she only dreams of romance and marriage.