Mary S Lovell - THE MITFORD GIRLS

review by Babs Simpson on show 16th june
Having just Deborah Devonshire's autobiograhy, I was interested to find ou more about her and her sisters and this biography certainly supplies masses of facts and very interesting detail. But it is far more that plain facts. The author has obviously researched her subject meticulously and the resulting book is an extremely good read.

The Mitford sisters - Nancy, Pamela,Diana, Unity, Decca and Debo - were all beautiful as well as being exceptionally intelligent women, despite being denied any sort of intellectual education. They all wrote well, Nancy and Jessica becoming very famous in their day for amusing and witty novels. There was great conflict in the family. Their father, Lord Redesale, was a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, as was to be expected, and when some of the girls became politically aware with Jessica espousing the Communist cause and Unity passionately supporting Hitler and the Nazis, great rifts ocurred, some of which never healed. In fact, so distraught was Unity at the declaration of war betwen her beloved England and her adopted and equally loved Germany, that she attempted suicide. That the attempt was unsuccessful was a mixed blessing because she suffered severe brain damage and her life was virtually over.

The other girls married and had children but all of them had tragedies and disappointment, their parents eventually separated and despite such a privileged background, they were not immune from the difficulties we all face during life.

Mary Lovell has produced a fascinating, detailed and great biography that manages to be quite unputdownable!
review by Babs