“The Mitford Girls” by Mary S Lovell

This is a really well-researched and quite substantial group biography of these six extraordinary sisters. Born into an eccentric, gentry family between 1904 and 1920, they all ended up going in very different directions, both personally and politically. Yet despite big differences and major rows, they always just about stayed in touch and supported one another.

This book was published in 2001 when three of the six were still alive, able to give extensive interviews to Mary Lovell and of an age not to be too concerned any more about offending people. As a result the book is gossipy, frank and I would think pretty authentic. Little is covered up and it was a pleasure to spend the many hours it took me to read this in the company of these highly entertaining and interesting siblings. The focus, understandably, is on the early years of the century when they blossomed, fell in and out of love, established themselves in the world and met many of the good, bad and very ugliest movers and shakers of their time.

It can be infuriating sometimes to observe that highly privileged people, with refined accents and a kind of in-built snobbery – genuine toffs as this family were – can also have been so generously endowed with bucketfuls of personal charm, good looks and brilliance. Their sense of humour and zest for life was extraordinary, and it is all portrayed with great skill in this book.

They were all – even the quieter, lesser-known sister Pamela – fascinating people, each worthy herself of major biographical treatment. I see that a full biography of Jessica Mitford is about to be published. So when their life stories are all told together like this, it is inevitable that the resulting book will be interesting, engaging and amusing to read.

While these women were never themselves hugely influential in the world, they were highly accomplished and professionally successful. They were also fantastically well-connected in the worlds of politics and the arts. Take Deborah Mitford – the youngest sister, for example. She was married for decades to the Duke of Devonshire and was the major driver of the transformation of the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire into a thriving family business during the second half of the twentieth century. She was related to Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan and John F Kennedy, and met Adolf Hitler, Charles de Gaulle, Charlie Chaplin and every member of the British Royal family. Her friendships extended into all kinds of other worlds too, particularly artists, musicians and writers.

It would be great to see this fine group biography updated now, and brought to its conclusion, that all six of the Mitford girls have died and their lives can be assessed properly in retrospect.