The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family

I thought this was an outstanding book on the Mitford family from the time of the birth of the first sister (Nancy) in 1904 through the 1980s and ending in the late 1990s. I especially thought it presented a wonderful description of the life styles of the English upper class during the 1920s and 1930s. I don’t think that lifestyle is something to be admired or be recreated. I just find it fascinating because it was so different from the British upper class (or anyone else’s) lifestyle of today, with the possible exception of the current royal family.The Mitfords, as Baron and Lady Redesdale, were actually among the poorer members of the aristocracy. Even so, they could afford to maintain three homes with a domestic staff of five or six housemaids, nannies, and governesses. They associated with the other members of the aristocracy; Winston Churchill was a cousin. The sisters partied with other people of their social milieu, vacationed in France and Italy, and never really learned any skills or knowledge that would allow them to support themselves independently of their eventual husbands. They were all educated by governesses in their homes. Learning fluent French was probably the greatest achievement and expectation. Nancy and Jessica eventually became renowned writers but they developed those capabilities on their own. Deborah, as Duchess of Devonshire, became a very sound estate manager and businesswoman. They all eventually became very irritated with their parents for not providing them with a formal education.Diana and Unity were personal acquaintances of Adolf Hitler and had many private lunches and dinners with him in the 1930s. Bear in mind — in the early and mid - 1930s Buchenwald, Belsen, and Auschwitz did not yet exist. Fascism attracted many in Britain in the 1930s. Both Diana and Unity became fluent in German and did not need translators with Hitler. They also both became very right-wing in their politics. By contrast, Jessica (“Decca”) emigrated to the US, married an American as her second husband, and joined the American Communist Party. She eventually quit the party in the 1950s after Khrushchev’s “secret speech” denouncing Stalin’s many crimes and mass murders.Sadly, I felt, most of them had unhappy marriages. Nancy, Diana, and Pamela all divorced their first husbands. Jessica became a WW II war widow. Unity never married. There were several marital infidelities on the parts of both the women and their husbands.A very good feature of the book is that two sisters, Diana and Deborah, were still alive when the book was being written in the late 1990s / early 2000. The author, Mary Lovell, was able to interview them. She was also provided with the many letters that the sisters had exchanged and kept over the decades. Lovell also interviewed people who had known the sisters well during their lives. As a result, the book is truly a saga of their lives without false insinuations and unproven rumors.In reading the book, it is well to refer frequently to the Family Tree at the front. The text mentions many family members and relatives and it can be quite difficult to keep everyone in perspective.An excellent book related to this subject is “The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy” (1990) by Cannadine. It discusses the peak of their political power, social influence, and wealth as a class from around 1880 into the 1950s by which time it had almost entirely all disappeared.

This book of all the books I’ve read about the Mitford Sisters (and believe me, I’ve read many, especially the sisters books they have written. This book really is a through description of the sisters, and their lives from childhood to their deaths. Definitely the most complete with their most telling personalities and beliefs, which were quite varied. The two traits that I think similar in all the girls are their sense of humor and determination to believe in themselves and their causes. The Best!

Nine personalities have their say in this biography. Nine basically decent people, though a couple went down paths we can only find reprehensible now. This is an even-handed biography, and it focuses on the personal rather than the bigger political scene. However I may think Unity had rocks in her head for adoring Hitler, Mary Lovell reminds me that fascism had a lot of fans at the time and could be mistaken for nationalism or simply anti-communism (which was much mistrusted by the Mitfords' genteel class). This isn't an excuse, it is a reason. You can't hope to understand someone until you explore why they may have done something.Unfortunately for the Mitford girls, their father refused to educate them further than a finishing school, though a couple of them begged. To be energetic, intelligent and bored can make for some interesting choices, which certainly makes for interesting reading.The mores of the time are shown by the story of Decca's dancing classes. She was 9 years old: "In the summer of 1926 to Decca's delight - she was always trying to get away from home - she was allowed to join dancing classes held in the homes of neighbours.... Decca, dressed in organza party frock and cashmere shawl, was taken to classes by Nanny every Wednesday. This pleasant occupation came to an abrupt end when she took the opportunity between dances to tell some of her contemporaries how babies were conceived and born. 'The telling was a great success,' she recalled. 'particularly as I couldn't help making up a few embellishments as I went along.' A week or so later, Syndey [Decca's Mother] sent for her, having received complaints from parents that their children were disturbed by what Decca had told them..... Decca wrote... 'The enormity of my ill-advised act... was such that years later, when I was a debutante of seventeen, I learned from an older cousin that two young men of the neightbourhood were still forbidden to associate with me.' "And that was just the start of the trouble the unrepentant Decca delighted in. But for all that the sisters occasionally looked for trouble, they also sometimes seemed to just drift into controversy. Their social class gave them wide access to movers and shakers, their beauty insured that they were always news.The last Mitford sister alive is the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, best known as the chatelaine of Chatsworth, one of the most beautiful manor houses in England. One of the last stories in the book is how she and her husband saved Chatsworth as a family estate, when so many big houses were lost to estate and wartime taxes.I don't read a lot of biographies, but I'm glad I picked this up. Very interesting reading of an era soon to become ancient history.Happy Reader

I read 'Hons and Rebels' recently and I read some of Nancy Mitford's novels years ago. I liked all of these. Amazon recommended this book to me and I thought why not. I thought it would be an entertaining book. I expected a little bit of serious history and a lot of frothy descriptions of debutante balls and aristocratic house parties. In that respect, the book met my expectations. I did NOT expect it to be so sympathetic to fascism. The author is particularly sympathetic to Diana and Oswald Mosley. She devotes a lot of space to explaining why she thinks they were treated harshly. At one point, she even says something about how Oswald Mosley (famously racist guy) was unfairly characterized as a racist when he was just really anti-immigration! She's also weirdly sympathetic to Lady Redesdale's love of Hitler and the Nazis. Yuck. I couldn't get over how the author kept saying that their fascism and anti-Semitism weren't really so bad. Meanwhile, the author does not seem to like Jessica Mitford. She goes on about how Jessica Mitford was unduly harsh to her family in her memoir and exaggerated a lot. Well, maybe she did, I have no idea, but she wasn't a Nazi. I can't recommend this book. I don't usually write reviews but seeing how highly this book has been rated on Amazon, I felt that I had to express my deep concerns!

It is good, interesting and one of the best biographies of the Mitford family. For me though, I learned much more about the lives of the six sisters from reading 'The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters', 830 pages, edited by Charlotte Mosley which includes so many letters exchanged during the years leading to and during the second world war; amazing letters and of course, with letters, you can pick it up and put it down without losing the thread.

An excellent book about the controversial sisters. It has a good bibliography and while some facts may not be authentic, the author did her research. It is nice to read

A comprehensive book aboutn this family . A joy to read and be informed about.

this book is a very easy read about a fascinating family. Mary Lovell 's style is to write like a novelist and so the book is very hard to put down.

Interesting book on this amazing family. Thoroughly enjoyed hearing all about their varied lives,.Their attributes, and the people they knew.