The Six

July 25, 2016
English writer Thompson (A Different Class of Murder) reveals how the six “posh-feral” Mitford sisters (the oldest of whom was born in 1904) became British cultural touchstones through their unabashed devotion to their respective causes—including fascism, Communism, and Elvis Presley—allowing them to embody the breadth of 20th-century conflicts within one remarkable aristocratic family. Thompson astutely compares wry contemporary assessments and countless often-brutal newspaper articles on the Mitford daughters to self-sufficient Nancy’s more benign fictional version and expat Jessica’s heavily embellished tell-all. With a reliance on sometimes-intrusive amateur psychology and an initially scattered chronology, this book reads more like an examination of personalities and sibling interplay than a traditional narrative; Pam’s penchant for the rural life means that she barely registers, but the obsessive Unity and heedless Diana leap off the page. Deborah, the most conventional, remained firmly of the upper class, becoming the Duchess of Devonshire. Thompson proves her case that the fearless siblings helped shape one another, sometimes through encouragement, but also through sharp barbs and betrayal, leading to extremism in an already highly politicized era. Non-British readers may take longer to understand the sisters’ lasting appeal, but Thompson successfully shows how this group of six captured the zeitgeist by being utterly committed and completely “shame-free.” B&w photos.

Starred review from July 1, 2016
A fresh look at six outrageous sisters.There has been no lack of attention to the notorious Mitford sisters, including biographies of Unity Valkyrie Mitford, who, scandalously, adored Hitler; Diana, who married the outspoken fascist Sir Oswald Mosley; and writer Nancy, the subject of Life in a Cold Climate (2003) by Somerset Maugham Award winner Thompson herself (A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan, 2014, etc.). Added to those are family memoirs, collections of letters, and a previous group biography, Mary S. Lovell's The Mitford Girls (2001). Yet for readers yearning for another take on the glamorous sisters' "posh past," Thompson's smart, jaunty, and wittily entertaining book will amply fill their desire. Steeped in Mitford lore and mythmaking, the book offers sharply drawn portraits of each woman, teases out the complexities of their fraught, competitive relationships with one another, and sets their lives within the context of a radically changing world. "These girls are prize exhibits in a Museum of Englishness," admits the author, but she shows how they were much more. Born between 1904 and 1920, the sisters grew up imbibing the etiquette of debutante balls and the personal consequences of global upheaval; their friends were the fey Bright Young Things, "sublimely clever aesthetes"; their enemies were legion. "Snobbery, shallowness, stupidity, adultery, unpalatability--the Mitfords were accused of all these things and rode out every criticism," Thompson writes admiringly. They fervently believed they were exceptional, even Jessica, who rebelled vehemently against the family's politics. Unity never married, and others chose startlingly unsuitable mates: Diana left her adoring, hugely wealthy, but unfortunately dull husband for the rake Mosley; and Pamela married opinionated, philandering bores; Jessica ran off with a communist, with whom she lived in poverty. Deborah, though, made a more suitable match, with an eminent duke who owned assorted castles. Thompson has fallen under the spell of the breathtakingly beautiful (as she repeatedly insists), seductive Diana, but otherwise, her cleareyed view of the sisters' strengths and foibles makes this gossipy story a delight.

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September 1, 2016

What journalist Thompson presents here is a commentary on the once-famous Mitford family rather than an informative narrative biography. These six daughters of British aristocrats (Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah), in the public eye during the 1930s and 1940s, responded differently and sometimes scandalously to the explosive political passions of the time. Diana left her husband to become the mistress and then wife of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, while Unity developed such an obsession with Adolf Hitler that she joined his inner circle. Pamela also married a fascist sympathizer, while Jessica eloped with communist Esmond Romilly, fought in the Spanish Civil War, and assumed the role of muckraker. Writer Nancy is perhaps best known, while youngest daughter Deborah lived quietly as a duchess. Thompson documents the pro-German leanings of the British upper class and how wartime divided this clan and countless others. Family dynamics and the competitive, combative relationships among the sisters explain the choices each made. Based primarily on published materials and providing minor historical context, this analysis juxtaposes the Mitfords' story against the backdrop of novels such as daughter Nancy's The Pursuit of Love. VERDICT For general readers well acquainted with English politics and literature of the first half of the 20th century.--Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
Statistical odds are against six out of seven children in one family being of the same gender, but Mother Nature met her match in the redoubtable Mitford family, specifically the six daughters of Lord and Lady Redesdale, born between 1904 and 1920. Obviously, at the time of the sisters' advent into adulthood, social expectations would ordinarily envision them as becoming quiet mothers and wives. But Thompson summarizes their endeavors this way: writer, countrywoman, Fascist, Nazi, Communist, and duchess. The author does a remarkable job of isolating the sisters' individualism, defining in fluid, sensitive, and authoritative language their individual distinctions, while at the same time keeping a sharp but understanding eye on the bigger picture: that the backdrop of their lives together and individually was the changing social and political landscape Britain was experiencing at the time. Looking as they did striking, in other words, the Mitford girls were never going to be ignored. Being what they were, they did not want to be. Appreciators of biography and social history will find much to engage their interest here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)