The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters, ed. Charlotte Mosley, Harper, November 2007
If you have ever read Love in a Cold Climate, by Nancy Mitford (one of my personal favourites!), or Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, you may be familiar with the famous Mitford sisters who flourished in London high society during the twenties and thirties. Nancy Mitford penned novels based on the eccentricities of her family and their unconventional upbringing. Diana, considered the most beautiful of the Mitford girls, was the inspiration for Evelyn Waugh’s 1930 novel (along with her first husband, Bryan Guinness).
The Mitford sisters are curious figures — they were almost entirely beautiful, charming creatures and yet their actions could be strange, and even repulsive for those looking back. Diana and Unity were reviled in England for their affection towards Hitler and for Diana’s refusal to change her esteem for him later in life.
The undeniable appeal of books relating to the Mitford sisters lies in the splendid lives they lived — I am excited to read this book over the Christmas holidays (if my husband so indulges me!)…beyond my interest in the tantalizing lives of the Mitford girls, I am curious also to find out how they related to one another, as sisters.
For a full review, please read the Telegraph’s piece: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/09/13/bomos108.xml
