India Knight on her love of home

Moving to the country & the story behind Darling...

You may know India Knight as the seasoned author, perhaps for 'Darling', her 2022 exquisite retelling of Nancy Mitford's classic 'The Pursuit of Love'. You may also know her for her witty and wonderful writing as The Sunday Times columnist, or as a journalist interviewing and reviewing for over 30 years. You may not know that she now (also) writes the most brilliant Substack newsletter, simply and aptly, called, Home. "Everything I truly love to write about - food, books, gardens, interiors, among other things - is on my Substack newsletter. After 30 years writing what other people asked me to write, it feels incredibly liberating and blissful to write exactly what I feel like writing, whenever I feel like doing it."

Home has comforting connotations, for most of us, and for India, it is her happy place. "I love home so much", she tell us, "that sometimes if I have to be away I get homesick in advance." A move to the countryside from London a decade ago was a big move and also a great move that has brought India much joy. "I trample about in boots and muddy trousers, I hardly ever wear makeup, I am outside for most of the day in spring and summer, I know the names of plants and birds (and their songs), I take enormous pleasure in the natural world'', says India. "I live very slowly – at a snail’s pace compared to my London life – and I savour every slow moment."

Here India tells us about the huge honour (and initial horror) of being awarded the responsibility for the reimagining of The Pursuit of Love with Darling; about getting older and a golden era with three grown up children; of loving life in rural Suffolk after her move to the country. And we play favourites (yes, including her beauty products)...