The Mitford sisters. Rich, privileged and beautiful, Nancy, Diana, Unity, Deborah, Jessica and Pamela veered between best friends and deadliest enemies. When Nancy declared that sisters were wonderful because they protected you from ‘life’s cruel circumstances’, Jessica quickly retorted that sisters were ‘life’s cruel circumstances’.Love-hate relationship: Five of the Mitford sisters, Jessica, Nancy, Diana, Unity and Pamela, pictured in 1935. The privileged girls veered between best friends and deadliest enemies
During World War II, Diana’s husband, the Fascist leader Oswald Mosley, was imprisoned as a threat to national security. Called to the Home Office to give information about her sister, Nancy didn’t hold back. ‘I regard my sister as an extremely dangerous person,’ she said.
Poor Diana was duly parted from her 11-week-old baby and banged up in Holloway Prison for more than three years.
‘Not very sisterly behaviour,’ Nancy shrugged.
But perhaps it was. After all, it was the perfect way to get even with the little sister who seemed to have everything, including four children, while Nancy had none.
********
That bit was written with the photo, which I came across while bored and now I'm on a quest to find out more about the sisters. Sisters have always fascinated me, because of the way I was raised. I know how deadly they can be to each other. Six of the Mitford sisters became published novelists. And their words and wars live on. * There's Nancy, the scalding wit and best selling novelist; Pamela, who craved a quiet country life; Diana, the fascist jailed during the Second World War; Unity, whose obsession with Hitler led to her demise, Jessica, the runaway communist; and Deborah, the socialite who became Duchess of Devonshire.* (*wikipedia) A book of their private correspondences has been published, The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters and it sounds juicy. I'd never heard of these people, have I been under a rock? I'd heard of Nancy's books, but, never the real story of the sisters. They grew up so rich, but, their father did not believe in formal education for girls and they longed for school. Bored and isolated with high IQ's the sisters learned to create drama early and eventually took it to the extreme. I feel a story coming on...not about them, but, I want to know more, that's for sure.
17 comments:
I haven't heard of them either. Holy shit on what Nancy did to Diana! It's not Diana's fault Nancy had no kids. Yikes.
i think i have that book with their correspondance....i know about them because of their connections with the royal family.....
fascinating....
Oh, can I borrow it? I'll trade you something!
Tia has all the good reads, that's how it seems to me.
Sounds fascinating, DD. Thanks for posting. My own sister is a toxic and evil person who would make my life a living, twitching, nervous hell if I let her back in. So I can probably relate to much of these sisters' angst.
Unity Mitford became obsessed with Hitler eventually becoming a friend of his. She was so upset when her country went to war with Germany, she shot herself in the head with a pistol Hitler had given her. She lived another 10 years after that. Woah.
Barb, has your sister always been like this? even as a kid?
well when i get to organizing my bedroom (SOON!!!) and i uncover it, you can borrow it---if i have it...i'm pretty sure i have a book on the mitford sisters.....
i like to read about royalty, their friends, and famous golden age hollywood stars.....and socialites from the 20s-50s......
Barbara in VA, I totally understand...my sister would do to me what Nancy did to Diana in a heartbeat....she's a nut! Luckily I have two brothers who are good guys. :)
Huh and I thot my three sisters were bad
they have nuthing on the mitford sisters.
0h yes she was obsessed with hitler. Kiki
Sisters can be evil. My is half evil and half good. You just never know.
I haven't heard of them either. They sound fascinating.
My sister, older than I am by 7 years, also an attorney (though practicing is a joke) has always tormented me. She is a master of insulting, a master at knowing where your soft spot is and digging in whenever possible. Making herself the heroine in every childhood story and me the idiot younger sister, telling them to anyone who will listen.
I was the quiet and introspective one. She was the extremely loud and outgoing one. This difference grated on her last nerve as the decades went by. Don't know how, don't know why. I'm very much into animals, always sort of a motherly type. Love kids, love animals, defender of all who are weak, that sort of thing.
Now we both are over 50. I have sometimes tried to be in her company, hoping against hope that something, some dynamic would've changed. But it is exactly the same. I come home shaking, nervous, a wreck, my head pounding, my blood pressure spiking. So last year I called an end to it all.
She is toxic. I don't like to use the word hate, but I seriously can't stand the woman.
Have you ever encountered evil? I have many times in my work met someone who was so evil it was difficult to even speak to them or be around them. It was seeping out of their pores and into the air that surrounded them. My sister has that aura about her.
Toxic. That's a good word for her. Yeah, I've met evil, dead and alive.
Yeah, I have big sister issues too.
I called her for some medical advice for a friend (her husband is a doctor) and by the end of the conversation I was crying.
She thinks I shouldn't leave California and go back to Chicago. Do you know why? Because it's cold in Chicago. Well, DUH. She thinks my man will dump me and I'll ask to live in her huge apartment basement. Won't happen, dear sister.
Can I live in her basement?
Of course, I had to go look them up. Boy, I have a dull life.
i have the book it's great. well worth the read.
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