Latest news with #JessicaMitford
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The 9 Best Books by the Mitford Sisters
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." If you've watched Outrageous and want to hear more from Nancy, Diana, Jessica, and Deborah—including the correspondence between them and those bookless sisters, Unity and Pamela—there's plenty to read. But where to begin? Here's T&C's short the least scandalous of then Mitford sisters, Deborah (or 'Debo') would grow up to become the Duchess of Devonshire and the chatelaine of Chatsworth House, which she managed to change from being a crumbling country estate into a booming attraction for tourists, history buffs, and garden fiends. This memoir is among the most charming of those written by the Mitfords, and recounts her happy childhood, a loving marriage, and a gimlet eye towards the eccentricities of her family. It's thankfully not lacking in gossip or glamour, and is a fine entry point to newcomers to the Mitford memoir universe. at 'Decca' Mitford ran away from home, heading to Spain with a second cousin she would marry. Later, she'd move to the U.S. and become a respected journalist and speaker as well as a devoted Communist. Her best known work, this deep dive into the American funeral industry was first published to wide acclaim—thanks to its sharp observations and unexpected humor—in 1963 and made Decca something of a literary star; this revised version includes additional intelligence and information from the decades after the book was first released. at she became an expert in the big business of dying, Jessica Mitford wrote this memoir about growing up in her eccentric, exceptional family. The book is a charming and memorable recollection of the singular circumstances under which Mitford was raised, but also a great coming-of-age story on its own—who wouldn't admire a kid who kept a Running Away Fund hidden in her room and then actually used it? at Mitford married one of the richest men in the U.K., then left him for a Fascist politician. She socialized with celebrities, heads of state, and royals, but spent more than three years in prison. She was a card carrying member of the Bright Young Things who later earned the title of 'The Most Hated Woman in Britain.' Why wouldn't you want to read her memoir? at there was anyone who was more talked about and ridiculed than Diana Mitford, it was Wallis Simpson. In this book, Mitford explores what made the Duchess of Windsor such a divisive character—and why her husband gave up the throne to be with her. The story benefits from Mitford's friendship with Simpson, but isn't a deification. Instead, it's a clear-eyed look at a woman whose love life made her a pariah, written by one of the only people who might understand that situation perfectly. at of Nancy Mitford's most beloved books are packaged together in this volume. The Pursuit of Love tells the story of the fictional Radlett family—eerily similar to Mitfords own, the depictions here would haunt her relations for years after publication—through the eyes of a visiting cousin. Love in a Cold Climate has the same narrator but focuses on another aristocratic British family and their daughter's attempts to find love and her own place in a rapidly changing world. Both show off Mitford's stylish writing and offer an unforgettable glimpse into the world she inhabited. at Mitford might be best known for her novels, but she was also an accomplished biographer. This book tells the story of Madame de Pompadour, the longtime mistress of the French king Louis VX who had incredible sway over France's politics and culture—and made plenty of enemies along the way. Mitford rethinks her subject's role and legacy, offering an informed and entertaining look at life in the royal court and what it took to have the kind of staying power Madame de Pompadour did. at six Mitford sisters contributed—unwittingly—to this book, which is a collection of the sharp, affectionate, funny, and revealing letters sent among them during their lifetimes. This peek into the private world of the women serves not only as a history of the 20th century, but also a rare look behind their public personas and into the complicated relationships they had with one another. at of what the Mitford sisters wrote (and said) about one another made for uncomfortable family interactions, but perhaps nothing more than Wigs on the Green, Nancy's satirical book—which was long out of print—that sends up the Fascist sympathies of upper class Brits, including her sisters Unity and Diana. Viewers of Outrageous will recognize the book as a plot point, and those yet to see the series will appreciate it for its astuteness and knowing commentary on the politics of early 20th century aristocrats. at You Might Also Like 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Debutantes are gone, the class divide remains: How life has changed since Nancy Mitford's pursuit of love
Eighty years ago, Nancy Mitford became an overnight success with the publication of The Pursuit of Love, a novel that chronicles the lovely Linda Radlett's pursuit of – well – love. From teenage daydreams to runaway romances, Linda's marriages and affairs, utterly scandalous within their 1930s context, today read as blissfully relatable to the book's modern fans. Considerably less relatable, if not just as consumable, is the upper-class world Linda exists within. The semi-autobiographical novel features the Radletts and friends in a behind-the-veil depiction of interwar English aristocracy that presents Nancy's ruling class as gilded and gorgeous, but also shameless snobs. Nancy drew from her own family for a portrayal of siblings not just privileged, but utterly bonkers. 'Whenever I read the words 'Peer's Daughter' in a headline, I know it's going to be something about one of you children,' Lady Redesdale, the Mitford matriarch, bemoaned. For the uninitiated, their life sounds unbelievable. Diana, the eldest, divorced the Guinness heir for Oswald Mosley; right on her heels, Jessica ran away to the Spanish Civil War; no one is quite sure whether or not Unity was pregnant with Hitler's baby when she put a gun to her head in 1939. (In a Daily Mail poll a year later, the unimpressed British public voted Unity Mitford the 14th most annoying thing about the war.) The novel became a near-immediate bestseller. Then, a decade later, Nancy cemented her reputation as Britain's foremost social commentator with the essay The English Aristocracy, which sought to further define the terms U (upper class) and Non-U (middle and lower class), first coined by linguist Alan S C Ross. So it's no wonder we are still obsessed by Nancy and her family to this day. This week, Outrageous, based upon Mary Lovell's excellent biography of the siblings, premieres on June 19 on U and U&Drama. It stars Bessie Carter as Nancy, with Anna Chancellor and James Purefoy as Muv and Farve, the Mitford parents. In an age of royal family dramas and Made in Chelsea influencers, our interest in what upstairs gets up to behind the scenes shows no signs of waning. But 80 years on, just how much are we still living in Nancy's world – and what has changed? From crushes on celebrities – including the Prince of Wales – to sneaking out from their parents' home to go partying with students, Nancy's heroines enjoy rather familiar girlhood experiences. Yet flirting on hunts and at debutante balls we (generally) are not; in 1958 Elizabeth II decreed that debs were no longer to be presented at court at the start of the social Season: the final 1,400 girls curtseyed to her that year. Coming out now has a totally different meaning while as relationship therapist Anne Power says, we now find romance online on apps like Hinge, Tinder or Bumble. But 'swiping on an app may not be so different,' she adds. 'The essential task for the individual, but still particularly that of the woman, in the courtship market is to make themselves 'look good'. In 1945 that was perhaps even more down to make-up and manners, but I'm not sure the dial has shifted so far.' And some things don't change at all – handsy 'debs' delights' were labelled NSIT (Not safe in taxis) or MSC (Makes Skin Creep). For women of the Mitford era, the marriage market was a way to escape the strict clutches of their parents. In the novel, Linda's first husband is pretty much the first man she meets her age. Should Linda have lived today, her first marriage would have been a mere freshers' week relationship between two posh people in halls which didn't make it past second year. With classic Mitford wit, Nancy wrote that one should 'marry for love… it won't last, but it is a very interesting experience' and then 'later on', one should marry for money. 'Big money,' she helpfully clarified. In the years following the war, life began to imitate Nancy's art: women were getting married younger, and by 1970 the average age for first marriage for a female was 23. Today it is entirely different for young women, with the average age of first marriage in their early 30s. 'None of us are desperately looking for love, nor do we see singlehood as some sort of waiting room, or a state of being that warrants pity,' dating columnist and author of Millennial Love, Olivia Petter, tells me. Affairs, mistresses, second husbands; even by 21st-century standards, the marital lives of the Mitford sisters are delightfully scandalous. Diana Mitford, Queen of the Bright Young Things scene, led the charge by leaving her husband Bryan Guinness and their two young children to be the mistress, and eventually wife, of Mosley. Nancy herself was no stranger to scandal. Her first engagement was to a gay man, and her subsequent marriage was to a money squandering womaniser. In The Pursuit of Love, the narrator's mother is infamously labelled The Bolter, and enjoys life in Kenya while her daughter is brought up by her aunt. The character was inspired by Lady Idina Sackville, Frances Osborne's great-grandmother, who married five times – an early serial monogamist, perhaps. Today, of course, matters regarding marriage and parenting have evolved. 'We would still not think well of a mother (or father) who walks away from their child, very occasionally dropping back in with lavish presents,' Power says of The Bolter. While the upper classes may still be corridor creeping to chilly bedrooms at country house weekends, our attitudes to infidelity have remained fairly steadfast, despite the advent of the Pill in the 1960s. Perhaps what has changed is that it's no longer viewed as simply a male pursuit. And there are other ways in which parenting has changed: the Uncle Matthew of the novel is definitely outdated. 'We're not as in love with hierarchy,' Power says, highlighting the absolute authority parents assumed to hold over their children in Nancy's Britain. Yet there is a level of sympathy that should be granted to the parental figures of The Pursuit of Love. Whether right or wrong by today's standards, parents of Nancy's time 'wanted what's best for their child'. Today, we know children should be hugged and not hit: corporal punishment in schools was outlawed in 1986, although the law on smacking is less clear in England than it is in Scotland and Wales. But similar micromanagement prevails, Power explains: 'After school clubs, preschool clubs. Why are parents doing this? To set their child on a certain track.' Nancy was a terrible snob about many things, and no group incurred her wrath more than the aspirational middle class. To Nancy, anything the middle classes seemed to do offended her upper-class sensibilities, whether they referred to Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, worked in offices or lived in Surrey. Going to school is middle class; usage of words such as 'notepaper' instead of 'writing-paper' is wrong; a tassel on an umbrella is common. But it is the middle class's attitude to money that riled up Nancy the most. 'Fussing about with blokes' money all day indoors' was how Uncle Matthew described the Governor of the Bank of England, who instead thought life should be spent hunting, riding, and lounging in inherited manors. We can only imagine what he would make of what is the most noble profession for public school boys in 2025: a city banker. What is considered posh or common may have changed over the years, but British commitment to class divide remains. Today, when EastEnders characters call each other darling and Prince William says mate, it's obvious we're no longer living in Nancy's world of strict U and Non-U vocabularies. Instead, class indicators are nuanced details that subtly suggest membership to an inner world. On a recent shooting weekend, I was advised not to bring a Barbour jacket if it looked like I had recently bought it; a friend of mine, when asked, will call his Eton education 'a school near Ascot'. Like the Mitford sisters themselves, The Pursuit of Love is a novel very much shaped by the wars of the early 20th century. War even more than class is the basis of the Mitfords' legacy: the sisters may have well been banished to the forgotten corners of British aristocracy had they not been so stridently committed to their ideologies. Diana and Unity's love for Fascism – and in Unity's case, infatuation with Hitler himself – saw the former banished from both their upper-class scene and wider British society, and the latter eventually dying of the bullet still lodged in her head from her attempted suicide. Jessica the 'Red Sheep' eloped with her cousin who fought in the Spanish Civil War, and then moved to the United States, where she became active in the Communist Party. I asked war historian Prof Dan Todman whether today's youth are as zealous. 'You've got to remember that, as good as their stories are, it was only a tiny minority who ventured to Spain to fight on either side,' he says. 'I think young people today are just as idealistic – it is one of the great virtues and benefits of youth – but they also face many of the same range of challenges in terms of whether and how that idealism can be expressed.' Nancy herself avoided the era's political extremities. A dedicated patriot, she sided with country over family in real life; at the start of the Second World War, she reported Diana to the authorities as an 'extremely dangerous person'. With Diana locked up and Unity reduced to a childlike state, Nancy did her bit for the war effort by working at a first-aid post in London and volunteering to help Jewish families evacuated from the Blitz'ed out East End. Todman is somewhat optimistic that the unity of wartime England championed by Nancy isn't totally lost, as the response to Covid-19 proved. But, 'it's easy to imagine we've lost an ability to put differences aside in pursuit of a shared goal. It's certainly harder to access,' he says, listing 'social media, political polarisation, divergent nationalisms in the UK and widening inequality' as reasons why. However, that's not to forget interwar Britain didn't have their own societal divides. 'There was widespread expectation of revolution or civil war,' Todman says. We may not be at that point yet, but according to some commentators, we're not far off. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Debutantes are gone, the class divide remains: How life has changed since Nancy Mitford's pursuit of love
Eighty years ago, Nancy Mitford became an overnight success with the publication of The Pursuit of Love, a novel that chronicles the lovely Linda Radlett's pursuit of – well – love. From teenage daydreams to runaway romances, Linda's marriages and affairs, utterly scandalous within their 1930s context, today read as blissfully relatable to the book's modern fans. Considerably less relatable, if not just as consumable, is the upper-class world Linda exists within. The semi-autobiographical novel features the Radletts and friends in a behind-the-veil depiction of interwar English aristocracy that presents Nancy's ruling class as gilded and gorgeous, but also shameless snobs. Nancy drew from her own family for a portrayal of siblings not just privileged, but utterly bonkers. 'Whenever I read the words 'Peer's Daughter' in a headline, I know it's going to be something about one of you children,' Lady Redesdale, the Mitford matriarch, bemoaned. For the uninitiated, their life sounds unbelievable. Diana, the eldest, divorced the Guinness heir for Oswald Mosley; right on her heels, Jessica ran away to the Spanish Civil War; no one is quite sure whether or not Unity was pregnant with Hitler's baby when she put a gun to her head in 1939. (In a Daily Mail poll a year later, the unimpressed British public voted Unity Mitford the 14th most annoying thing about the war.) The novel became a near-immediate bestseller. Then, a decade later, Nancy cemented her reputation as Britain's foremost social commentator with the essay The English Aristocracy, which sought to further define the terms U (upper class) and Non-U (middle and lower class), first coined by linguist Alan S C Ross. So it's no wonder we are still obsessed by Nancy and her family to this day. This week, Outrageous, based upon Mary Lovell's excellent biography of the siblings, premieres on June 19 on U and U&Drama. It stars Bessie Carter as Nancy, with Anna Chancellor and James Purefoy as Muv and Farve, the Mitford parents. In an age of royal family dramas and Made in Chelsea influencers, our interest in what upstairs gets up to behind the scenes shows no signs of waning. But 80 years on, just how much are we still living in Nancy's world – and what has changed? Are we still pursuing love? From crushes on celebrities – including the Prince of Wales – to sneaking out from their parents' home to go partying with students, Nancy's heroines enjoy rather familiar girlhood experiences. Yet flirting on hunts and at debutante balls we (generally) are not; in 1958 Elizabeth II decreed that debs were no longer to be presented at court at the start of the social Season: the final 1,400 girls curtseyed to her that year. Coming out now has a totally different meaning while as relationship therapist Anne Power says, we now find romance online on apps like Hinge, Tinder or Bumble. But 'swiping on an app may not be so different,' she adds. 'The essential task for the individual, but still particularly that of the woman, in the courtship market is to make themselves 'look good'. In 1945 that was perhaps even more down to make-up and manners, but I'm not sure the dial has shifted so far.' And some things don't change at all – handsy 'debs' delights' were labelled NSIT (Not safe in taxis) or MSC (Makes Skin Creep). Negotiating the marriage market For women of the Mitford era, the marriage market was a way to escape the strict clutches of their parents. In the novel, Linda's first husband is pretty much the first man she meets her age. Should Linda have lived today, her first marriage would have been a mere freshers' week relationship between two posh people in halls which didn't make it past second year. With classic Mitford wit, Nancy wrote that one should 'marry for love… it won't last, but it is a very interesting experience' and then 'later on', one should marry for money. 'Big money,' she helpfully clarified. In the years following the war, life began to imitate Nancy's art: women were getting married younger, and by 1970 the average age for first marriage for a female was 23. Today it is entirely different for young women, with the average age of first marriage in their early 30s. 'None of us are desperately looking for love, nor do we see singlehood as some sort of waiting room, or a state of being that warrants pity,' dating columnist and author of Millennial Love, Olivia Petter, tells me. Corridor creeping in country houses Affairs, mistresses, second husbands; even by 21st-century standards, the marital lives of the Mitford sisters are delightfully scandalous. Diana Mitford, Queen of the Bright Young Things scene, led the charge by leaving her husband Bryan Guinness and their two young children to be the mistress, and eventually wife, of Mosley. Nancy herself was no stranger to scandal. Her first engagement was to a gay man, and her subsequent marriage was to a money squandering womaniser. In The Pursuit of Love, the narrator's mother is infamously labelled The Bolter, and enjoys life in Kenya while her daughter is brought up by her aunt. The character was inspired by Lady Idina Sackville, Frances Osborne's great-grandmother, who married five times – an early serial monogamist, perhaps. Today, of course, matters regarding marriage and parenting have evolved. 'We would still not think well of a mother (or father) who walks away from their child, very occasionally dropping back in with lavish presents,' Power says of The Bolter. While the upper classes may still be corridor creeping to chilly bedrooms at country house weekends, our attitudes to infidelity have remained fairly steadfast, despite the advent of the Pill in the 1960s. Perhaps what has changed is that it's no longer viewed as simply a male pursuit. Parenting power And there are other ways in which parenting has changed: the Uncle Matthew of the novel is definitely outdated. 'We're not as in love with hierarchy,' Power says, highlighting the absolute authority parents assumed to hold over their children in Nancy's Britain. Yet there is a level of sympathy that should be granted to the parental figures of The Pursuit of Love. Whether right or wrong by today's standards, parents of Nancy's time 'wanted what's best for their child'. Today, we know children should be hugged and not hit: corporal punishment in schools was outlawed in 1986, although the law on smacking is less clear in England than it is in Scotland and Wales. But similar micromanagement prevails, Power explains: 'After school clubs, preschool clubs. Why are parents doing this? To set their child on a certain track.' An obsession with class Nancy was a terrible snob about many things, and no group incurred her wrath more than the aspirational middle class. To Nancy, anything the middle classes seemed to do offended her upper-class sensibilities, whether they referred to Saturday and Sunday as the weekend, worked in offices or lived in Surrey. Going to school is middle class; usage of words such as 'notepaper' instead of 'writing-paper' is wrong; a tassel on an umbrella is common. But it is the middle class's attitude to money that riled up Nancy the most. 'Fussing about with blokes' money all day indoors' was how Uncle Matthew described the Governor of the Bank of England, who instead thought life should be spent hunting, riding, and lounging in inherited manors. We can only imagine what he would make of what is the most noble profession for public school boys in 2025: a city banker. What is considered posh or common may have changed over the years, but British commitment to class divide remains. Today, when EastEnders characters call each other darling and Prince William says mate, it's obvious we're no longer living in Nancy's world of strict U and Non-U vocabularies. Instead, class indicators are nuanced details that subtly suggest membership to an inner world. On a recent shooting weekend, I was advised not to bring a Barbour jacket if it looked like I had recently bought it; a friend of mine, when asked, will call his Eton education 'a school near Ascot'. War and peace Like the Mitford sisters themselves, The Pursuit of Love is a novel very much shaped by the wars of the early 20th century. War even more than class is the basis of the Mitfords' legacy: the sisters may have well been banished to the forgotten corners of British aristocracy had they not been so stridently committed to their ideologies. Diana and Unity's love for Fascism – and in Unity's case, infatuation with Hitler himself – saw the former banished from both their upper-class scene and wider British society, and the latter eventually dying of the bullet still lodged in her head from her attempted suicide. Jessica the 'Red Sheep' eloped with her cousin who fought in the Spanish Civil War, and then moved to the United States, where she became active in the Communist Party. I asked war historian Prof Dan Todman whether today's youth are as zealous. 'You've got to remember that, as good as their stories are, it was only a tiny minority who ventured to Spain to fight on either side,' he says. 'I think young people today are just as idealistic – it is one of the great virtues and benefits of youth – but they also face many of the same range of challenges in terms of whether and how that idealism can be expressed.' Nancy herself avoided the era's political extremities. A dedicated patriot, she sided with country over family in real life; at the start of the Second World War, she reported Diana to the authorities as an 'extremely dangerous person'. With Diana locked up and Unity reduced to a childlike state, Nancy did her bit for the war effort by working at a first-aid post in London and volunteering to help Jewish families evacuated from the Blitz'ed out East End. Todman is somewhat optimistic that the unity of wartime England championed by Nancy isn't totally lost, as the response to Covid-19 proved. But, 'it's easy to imagine we've lost an ability to put differences aside in pursuit of a shared goal. It's certainly harder to access,' he says, listing 'social media, political polarisation, divergent nationalisms in the UK and widening inequality' as reasons why. However, that's not to forget interwar Britain didn't have their own societal divides. 'There was widespread expectation of revolution or civil war,' Todman says. We may not be at that point yet, but according to some commentators, we're not far off.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Kardashians of history: why are we so obsessed with the Mitford sisters?
The rise and fall of the Mitford sisters is like one of those earthquakes we're due on a regular rotation: eight years out from Gucci's much-documented Never Marry a Mitford jumper, four years after the BBC drama The Pursuit of Love, a new TV show appears fortuitously to bring them back into the public consciousness again. Here they come, out of the mists of time, the seven children of a minor member of the House of Lords: Nancy, of course, the author of Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love and probably the most famous in her own right; followed by Pamela, the least famous and fond chiefly of chickens and horrible men; then Tom, the only boy, with a weakness for the Nazis and, as far as history is concerned, no personality. Then Diana, Mrs Oswald Mosley (Lady Mosley, please, you oik). Then Unity Valkyrie, conceived in the little Canadian town of Swastika, and led presumably by nominative determinism to Hitler's side; and her best friend and closest sibling, Jessica (Decca), an ardent communist from childhood. Their shared room, famously, had a line down the centre: swastikas and eagles on one side, hammers and sickles the other. The baby of the family, Debo, loved horses and dogs and looking pretty, and became a duchess. A big, splashy, high-budget period drama, Outrageous is just the latest flowering of Mitford mania. But why do we care? What could possibly be so compelling about six aristocratic women (plus one drippy Nazi-affiliated brother)? As a cast member said in an interview ahead of the show, they are the Kardashians of history, each with their own recognisable brand. In Charlotte Mosley's 2007 collection, Letters Between Six Sisters, each sister is given a little symbol: a coronet for example, or a swastika. Even among the family (for of course Mosley is a relation), the sisters cannot escape themselves. Or, perhaps, especially among the family. Who among us is unfamiliar with this feeling? The messy one! The wild card! The golden child! The black sheep! . The beauty? The runaway? The dud? There's a Mitford for that. There is, in fact, a Mitford for every possible persuasion: every permutation of political thought, up to and including 'eat the rich', is catered for by this array of blue-blooded, impossibly well-connected women, who are somehow there at every moment of historical significance throughout the 20th century. We can offer you Churchill's cousins (both the sisters, through Churchill's wife Clementine, and Decca's first husband were Churchill-adjacent); and Hitler's 'angels' (Diana and Unity, described as such by the Fuhrer); forming a band with Maya Angelou (Jessica), or getting tangled up with the curse of the Kennedy clan (Debo), or married to Mosley (Diana's secret wedding to the leader of Britain's Blackshirts took place in Goebbels' Berlin residence in 1936 with Adolf as guest of honour) and Mr Guinness of Guinness fame (Diana again, whose first husband was heir to the Barony of Moyne); or – as the 2013 show Psychobitches put it in song form: 'a Naziphile, a commie bore, a personal friend of Mr Evelyn Waugh.' Settings for their extraordinary lives range from the slums of Limehouse; the glittering prewar palaces of Mayfair; Paris, post-civil war Spain, Nazi Berlin, the Isle of Mull (the family owned Inch Kenneth, an island off its west coast, and it was one of the places Unity was sent to live after a second world war-induced suicide attempt); Versailles (Nancy lived there and wrote about The Sun King, Louis XIV); Oakland, California (Jessica's home for 40 years with her second husband, American civil rights lawyer Robert Treuhaft); the Cotswolds (the Jacobean Asthall Manor was the sisters childhood home); to F Block, Holloway prison, where Diana spent much of the war behind bars. And who sent Diana to prison for fascism? Why, Nancy, of course. Or at least, that's what Debo believed, though Nancy always denied it. Was Nancy's first husband gay? Did Hitler really play Unity off against Eva Braun? Every book, every biography, every autobiography tells a different story. And there are dozens of books, including Mary Lovell's excellent The Mitford Girls on which the show is based. There are biographies of each sister; autobiographies by most sisters (sorry Pam); and Nancy's novels are never out of print. There are even retellings of Nancy's novels: India Knight's Darling, released just last year, updates The Pursuit of Love for the 21st century. One singular family – so unlike, and yet so like, all families in their chaos and commitment, passion and frustration. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion The Mitford sisters love each other; hate each other; betray each other; write to each other daily for the best part of a century. They forgive the unforgivable and hold tiny slights for almost a hundred years. They know each other so deeply, and can never see eye to eye. We see and we don't see; we understand and misunderstand; we know the story of the Mitfords, and yet – like the Kardashians and the royals – we don't know them at all. We know our own families deeply, and yet there's so many things they think and do that have nothing to do with us at all. In all our simple silhouettes, there's a wild everything bubbling underneath. This is the Mitford magic, but it's our own magic, too. For all the ways they say, like the late Queen, 'ears' instead of 'yes' and 'hice' instead of 'house'; for all their grand houses and extraordinary behaviour and terrible entanglements with the great names of history – it turns out that the Mitfords: they're just like us. But more fun to watch on TV. And with more famous friends. Outrageous will be available to watch on U&DRAMA and U in the UK and Britbox in North America on 18 June 2025.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The 6 Mitford Sisters, Their Jewelry and a New TV Series
The Mitford sisters, known for their 20th-century aristocratic glamour and political scandal, were not among England's most gem-laden women. But jewelry did play a role in their outsize public profiles. 'Diana the fascist, Jessica the communist, Unity the Hitler-lover, Nancy the novelist, Deborah the duchess and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur' is how Ben Macintyre, a writer for The Times of London, once described the six women. Now they are the subjects of 'Outrageous,' a six-part series scheduled to debut June 18 on BritBox in the United States and Canada and June 19 on U and U&Drama in Britain. The series is set in the 1930s, the era in which they became famous — and infamous — and arrives on the heels of the discovery of a diary kept by Unity, who was obsessed with Hitler and, by her own account, was his lover. Excerpts were published this year by The Daily Mail. A childish prank involving Unity and Jessica was most likely one of the sisters' earliest jewelry episodes. 'A diamond ring was used to etch both the image of a hammer and sickle and swastika on a window in their childhood home,' Sarah Williams, the writer of 'Outrageous,' said in a recent video interview. 'They had such a young bond as kids, but they were both rebels, and that bond of rebellion was stronger than their political beliefs. They were absolute extremes.' The sisters — there also was one brother, Thomas, who was killed in World War II — were the children of David Freeman-Mitford, the second Baron Redesdale, and his wife, Sydney Bowles. While the family was not particularly wealthy, the sisters were schooled at home and then entered society. 'As part of our research, we specifically collected images of jewelry pieces worn by the Mitford girls,' Claire Collins, the costume designer for 'Outrageous,' said by email, 'and although we couldn't replicate certain pieces, we were able to use them as a guide.' She added: 'For example, we decided to incorporate more bohemian pieces for Nancy as we were keen to express her ties with the creative types of the time, such as the Bloomsbury group.' Ms. Williams said she found dozens of references to jewelry in her research, which included Jessica's 1960 memoir, 'Hons and Rebels,' and 'The Mitford Girls' by Mary S. Lovell, the 2001 biography that was the basis for 'Outrageous.' Diana, for example, wore a tiara of diamonds and rubies at her 1929 wedding to Bryan Guinness, heir to the brewery fortune. She reportedly returned the tiara to him when they divorced four years later, but kept several other pieces. (Later she married Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British fascist movement.) 'The Mitford sisters came from impeccably aristocratic stock, but growing up, money was tight,' Ms. Williams said. 'Nevertheless, I think jewelry was highly significant in their lives, as it often came in the form of gifts from the men they loved, but it could also be exchanged for hard cash and might help them out of a tight spot.' That idea plays out in 'Outrageous,' in a sequence portraying Nancy as a celebrated but not always financially secure novelist. 'Nancy is forced to sell all her jewelry to pay her rent, but we retained one small pinkie ring that was our nod to her connection with her family,' Ms. Collins wrote. 'It's small and unnoticeable to most, but it grounds her character and gives her heart.' One anecdote from 'The Mitford Girls' describes Nancy seeing Pamela's 17th-century enamel and gold wedding ring — from a suitor who ended the engagement shortly before the ceremony — and commenting that it looked like 'a chicken's mess.' The scenario was fictionalized in Nancy's novel 'The Pursuit of Love,' and the real ring was said to be given to Unity, who reportedly regifted it to Hitler. Of the sisters, the youngest, Deborah, also known as Debo, probably had the most jewelry. She married Andrew Cavendish, who was later the 11th Duke of Devonshire, and eventually became the chatelaine of the Devonshire stately home, Chatsworth. Much of her personal jewelry — including a heart-shape brooch pavéd with brilliant-cut diamonds and a curb link chain bracelet with white sapphires forming the letters to spell Teapot Row, the name of one of the duke's racehorses — along with paintings, furniture and household goods were auctioned in 2016 by Sotheby's. The auction also listed several brooches, such as a citrine, onyx and diamond caterpillar, that were gifts from her husband. 'It was rumored that every time he had a fling, he would feel guilty and would buy her an insect or animal brooch,' said Adrian Dickens, a jeweler in Australia and a recognized expert on the Mitfords. 'There is one photo of the duchess wearing 30 to 40 of them.' The Devonshire jewels belonged to the family, although Deborah wore them as duchess. 'She had nine major pieces,' Mr. Dickens said, 'including the Devonshire parure, a collection of seven matching items — bandeau, bracelet, coronet, diadem, necklace, stomacher and comb — commissioned by the sixth Duke of Devonshire for his nephew's wife to wear to Czar Alexander II's coronation in 1856.' The collection also included two diamond tiaras: the Devonshire tiara, sometimes referred to as the Palmette tiara, with 1,881 diamonds in palm leaf and lotus motifs, which, like many tiaras, could be divided into several brooches; and the honeysuckle tiara, which could be dismantled into as many as seven brooches, Mr. Dickens said. 'Deborah wore the Devonshire parure but not often because it must have been very heavy and uncomfortable,' he said. 'A portrait of her in front of her Lucian Freud portrait does show at least three of the pieces being worn quite casually.' Her jewelry could be seen as the final, glamorous chapter in the saga of the Mitford sisters. 'The family was torn apart by politics, but the sisterhood remained intact,' Ms. Williams said. 'They had a yearning for diamonds and fine jewelry as the era of aristocracy was ending. There was a lot of good breeding, but not much cash.'
