Everything You Need to Know About Amazon’s Charming New Adaptation of The Pursuit of Love

What is the plot of The Pursuit of Love?

The TV adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel will remain faithful to the original plot—breaking it out into three, 60-minute installments. Beginning in the interwar period, The Pursuit of Love chronicles willful, aristocratic heroine Linda Radlett’s quest to find true romance at all costs—a desire that takes her from her ancestral home of Alconleigh in Oxfordshire to the Pyrenees at the height of the Spanish Civil War and on to the Paris of the Lost Generation. Acting as her foil? The story’s narrator, Linda’s cousin Fanny Logan, whose altogether more “respectable” choices throw Linda’s daring into stark relief.

Is there a trailer for The Pursuit of Love?

Yes, and it’s playful, hyper-sexual, and full of adultery references—the Mitfords would no doubt approve.

Who is in the cast of The Pursuit of Love?

Lily James (who has a lead role in just about every major period drama this year) will star as the wild-hearted Linda, with Emily Beecham taking a turn as Fanny. The supporting cast is equally good—with Dominic West and Dolly Wells appearing as Linda’s parents (whom Nancy Mitford based on her own rather severe mother and father) and Andrew-the-Hot-Priest-Scott as the Radletts’ wonderfully eccentric neighbor, Lord Merlin.

When will The Pursuit of Love be released?

The Pursuit of Love will premiere on Amazon Prime on July 30.

Who is directing The Pursuit of Love?

In addition to starring as Fanny’s mother (nicknamed The Bolter thanks to her endless romances), Emily Mortimer is both writing and directing the BBC adaptation. “I’ve always loved Nancy Mitford so when I was asked to adapt The Pursuit of Love it was impossible to say no,” she explained in a statement. “It’s an outrageously funny and honest story, whose central character—the wild, love-addicted Linda Radlett—still reads as a radical.”

What will the costumes for The Pursuit of Love be like?

Sinéad Kidao is handling all costume design for the project—which all but guarantees plenty of stand-out fashion moments. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate has previously assisted Oscar-winner Jacqueline Durran on the wardrobes for films such as Little Women and Anna Karenina, and The Pursuit of Love is filled with rich descriptions of Linda’s clothes—particularly after she moves to Paris and become an early discipline of French style, making trips to the Galeries Lafayette and the “big houses.”