Nancy Mitford

Diary of a revolution

Pitched battles, De Gaulle – and trying to live on champagne...

In May 1968, civil unrest, bordering on revolution, exploded on to the streets of Paris. Student protesters and striking workers brought France’s economy to a standstill. President Charles de Gaulle warned of civil war. The Spectator’s then editor, Nigel Lawson, asked Nancy Mitford for a diary on the unfolding drama, which she followed from her house, about a mile from Versailles.
This is an edited extract.

16 May

We have heard the young leaders of the revolution on TV for three quarters of an hour. Having said how much they despised everything in life, especially money, they keenly gave the numbers of their bank accounts so that we could hurry out and send them some. There was a great deal of wailing about their treatment by the police. I despise them for it. They were out for a rough-up and they got it. Nobody was killed and now they are behaving like babies who have been slapped. It’s not very dignified.

The postman made our blood run cold by saying, ‘Tout va changer’. Then Frank and Kitty [the Times foreign editor and his wife] came from Paris to see me. Very friendly of them. He thinks we are having one of those periodic student upsets which France has always known. He doesn’t think it’s serious. Frank is a clever man, knows France and French history, but I well remember that in May 1958 he never expected the return of General de Gaulle.

19 May

General Strike, so as I haven’t got a car I am stuck here. Very good for work. The wireless has been taken over and the announcers who used to seem such dears have suddenly become extremely frightening. They rattle out bad news like machine guns. The French seem to have turned into Gadarene swine.

20 May

The wireless is terrifying. If the BBC were not always so utterly wrong about French affairs I would listen to it, but what is the good? They understand nothing.

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