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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Mitford family
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Of the six daughters of David Freeman-Mitford (later Lord Redesdale), four led careers which kept the family in the public eye – in the case of two of them, because of their Fascist sympathies. Hitler was present at the wedding of Diana (b. 1910) to Oswald *Mosley in 1936. Unity (1914–48) was a close friend of the Führer and almost fatally injured herself in an attempt to commit suicide in Munich. By contrast the youngest daughter, Jessica (1917–96), was on the far left of the political spectrum in the late 1930s. Her first book (Hons and Rebels 1960) offered a vivid image of the life of the Mitford children. She lived in the USA and her subsequent career was, in her own words, that of a 'muckraker', writing polemical investigations of such topics as the funeral industry (The American Way of Death 1963).
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The most distinguished of the sisters was Nancy (1904–73), who had great success with her witty and lightly satirical novels. The books feature the girls of the Radlett family (closely resembling the Mitfords and featuring in Uncle Matthew a famous portrait of their father), following them and their circle through a shifting pattern of marriages and affairs; Nancy's first great success was aptly named The Pursuit of Love (1945). This was followed by Love in a Cold Climate (1949) and The Blessing (1951).
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Thereafter she concentrated mainly on biography, writing books on Mme de Pompadour, Voltaire and Louis XIV; she lived in Paris from 1947. In 1956 she edited and contributed to Noblesse Oblige: an enquiry into the identifiable characteristics of the English aristocracy. The intention was satirical but many read it for tips on etiquette, with the result that *U and non-U were launched on their dreary course.
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