*Six* Women to Know: The Mitford Sisters
'You are the last Mitford sister.'
'Yes.'
Is that a very lonely feeling?
'...You know, life goes on.'
— Debo Mitford, in conversation with John Preston
(image via Vanity Fair)
People didn't know them by their titles or names. People knew them by their nicknames ("Debo," "Decca," "Honks") — and by their scandalous reputations (dalliances with confessional writing, affairs with prominent heads of state and even a wedding to fascist sympathizer Oswald Mosley). As Lynn Barber called them, "The duchess, the fascist, the communist, the Nazi, the novelist and er, the other one."
Add to your library list:
The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters (Laura Thompson)
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Sisters (Mary S. Lovell)
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (Charlotte Mosley)
Read more:
Why the enduring fascination with the Mitford sister won't die (Vanity Fair)
The might of the Mitfords (The New York Times)
Death of Deborah Mitford, the last of six sisters who shocked and entertained (The Washington Post)
There is more to the Mitford sisters than Hitler and the high life (The Guardian)
The English debutante who staged Nazi orgies (The Telegraph)
The myth of the Mitford (The Guardian)
The end of the Mitford sisters (Gawker)
Watch more:
The Mitford Sisters (PBS)
** Send your own recommendations for women to know! Reply to this newsletter with your lady and she could be featured in an upcoming edition. You can browse the archive here. **