Laura Thompson (1) (1964–)

This is a very detailed, and well written collective biography of the six Mitford sisters. I think that the study of their lives could almost be a prism through which much of the social and political history of the middle third of the century - social, as exemplifying the mores and decline of the traditional aristocracy; and political, as among the sisters there was an: out and out Nazi (Unity, who met Hitler 140 times and was rumoured - almost certainly falsely - to have been his mistress); a Fascist and Nazi sympathiser (Diana, who left her first husband to marry Fascist leader Oswald Mosley); and a Communist (Jessica, who eloped and went to the US and supported the civil rights movement there in later decades). Among the other sisters, Nancy, the eldest, was a novelist and author of non-fiction works on French history, Deborah, the youngest became Duchess of Devonshire, and Pam was the "boring" one (though married to a Fascist sympathiser). There was also, which is less well known, a brother Tom, who was killed in the closing weeks of the war fighting the Japanese. Their mother was also very soft on Hitler, even during and after the war. This book explores their lives and loves in great, sometimes perhaps over exhaustive detail, trying to see the sisters and their actions (rightly) in the context of their times, but sometimes in my view going a little too far in bending over backwards, for example, to use Diana Mosley's unwavering loyalty to her husband as justification for her ongoing fascist/Hitler-sympathising and anti-semitic attitudes even long after the war. I thought some of this could have been reined back a bit, and that is the reason for my docking a very good book half a point in my rating. But this is a very good read and instructive about so much of English society in the middle decades of the 20th century.… (altro)

This book covers a wide range of heiresses, from the 18th century through to the 20th, and from both the U.K. and U.S. I hadn't previously encountered many of these women and I found the stories of their lives fascinating. Despite their wealth, these women did not have easy lives and struggled with finding partners, managing their inheritances, and finding their way in the world. They all were vulnerable, but the precise nature of that vulnerability changed over the centuries that this book covers. If you have an interest in women's history, I would highly recommend this book.… (altro)