The Six: The Lives of The Mitford Sisters, Thompson - B

                     The sisters were born in the heart of aristocratic England between 1904 and 1920. The ancient Mitford name preceded the Conquest. Their names were Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah. They became a novelist, a countrywoman, a Fascist, a Nazi, a Communist, and a Duchess. They grew up in the closed world of their family and servants at their country estates and London home. They were uncharacteristically politicized in an era of extremist political philosophies. The 1930's tore their family apart and diminished their father's wealth. They remain a focus of fascination to the English for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was their extraordinary self-confidence and indifference to what people thought of them.

                    When his older brother died in WWI, their dad inherited a lordship, some financial assets, and an abundance of real estate. David Mitford sold off his father's houses assuring, that although his daughters upbringing was strictly upper-class, it was somewhat peripatetic.  They were not afforded the opportunity for a formal education, and grew up in a house with an austere mother and a loving father, a member of the House of Lords, a true conservative and a man wholly incompetent financially. The two best-known of the girls were Nancy, the oldest, and Diana, the third. Nancy had a successful career as a novelist writing about the upper classes she knew so well.  Diana was considered one of the most beautiful woman in the world and was the first to marry. In 1929, she and Bryan Guinness, heir to the vast family fortune, were wed. She was 18. Nancy, on the other hand, was a bit too quick and witty for the average upper-class male and drifted through her 20's single, but launching  her writing career.

                   The year 1932 saw the beginning of the unraveling of the family's place in society. Diana walked out on her husband and took up with Sir Oswald Mosley, former MP and leader in the Labour Party, and about to be founder of the British Union of Fascists. Mosley and the BUF were quite popular and were lauded by such disparate people as Lloyd George and George Bernard Shaw. However, Diana's conduct was wildly beyond the pale of its times. In 1933, Diana and Guinness were divorced, the epic-philanderer Mosley's wife died, and Nancy married a totally unsuitable womanizer named Peter Rodd. Nancy's next book mocked her new husband, as well as his family and satirized the fascists in the BUF. Soon, Unity, the fourth daughter, entered the arena as a serious fascist and joined the BUF. Diana and Unity went to Germany, attended the first Nuremberg rally and met Hitler. Unity decamped to live in Munich. She and Hitler became fast friends and met 140 times before the war's outbreak. She was sort of a "younger sister, court jester and talisman." Their dad made a pro-Hitler speech in the House of Lords. Diana actually obtained funding from Hitler to help keep the financially floundering BUF afloat.  She and Mosley married at Goebbels' house in Berlin in 1936. In response to all of the Germany-loving in her family, Jessica, the fifth, became a communist.  Jessica fell for her cousin, Esmond  Romailly, and followed him to Spain, where he reported on the Civil war.  She was pregnant when they married in 1937. The sedate and entirely normal sixth daughter, Deborah, had her coming out parties in 1938. Two weeks into her debut, she met and fell for Andrew Cavendish, the future Duke of Devonshire. They would marry three years later. The day after the war began, Unity put a gun to her head in Munich. Although she lived, she was in a childlike state and would be so until her death in 1947.

                  Lord David and Lady Sydney Mitford retreated from public life to their last remaining piece of real estate, an obscure island off Scotland's western coast. Nancy drove an ambulance in London and Mosley was arrested for being part of an organization "subject to foreign influence or control." Diana soon followed him into captivity. After 18 months in horrid prisons, the Mosley's were placed in a married accommodation for two years and eventually placed under house arrest in late 1943. Nancy's husband Peter, their brother Tom and Jessica's husband Esmond were all in combat positions overseas. Esmond died in late 1941 while flying over the North Sea. The ultimate blow for the family came when the only son and brother, Tom, was killed in Burma in early 1945. Lord and Lady Mitford split up and David became a recluse.

               After the war, Nancy continued her very successful writing career and moved to Paris to share her life with a Frenchman. Jessica was already in America, where she had remarried and settled down. Diana and Mosley also moved to Paris. David died in 1958 at the age of eighty. Jessica achieved literary fame when she published a history of their upbringing in 1960. Three years later, their mother died. Nancy's career continued very successfully in France until her death in 1973. Pamela lived comfortably abroad and in the English countryside until her death in 1994. Mosley died in 1980 and Diana lived until 2003. Jessica published an acclaimed book excoriating the American funeral industry in 1963 and became a bit of a media celebrity until her death in 1996. Andrew and Deborah lived a long privileged life as the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. She died in 2014 at 94.                                                                                                This group biography feels less like a history and more like a social analysis and assessment. The author constantly compares their lives to Nancy's novels which apparently were heavily autobiographical. One who has never read any of those novels (certainly almost all Americans) is at a distinct disadvantage. The concept of being 'famous for being famous' comes to mind in an attempt to understand their role in English society. One does walk away though with an admiration for their tenacity and marvels at the literary accomplishment of women who were not afforded any education.