It's also understandable (and not at all uncommon) that the older siblings found
some measure of success while the younger ones behaved like the over-indulged, spoiled children they
were and never seemed to cease to be.

The reader who remembers (and the student of) the early-
and mid-20th century will recognize the famous names that wander through these pages with the
infamous family: Aly Khan, Winston Churchill, Katharine Graham, Diana Cooper, Evelyn Waugh and more
-- it's a star-studded group of friends, relatives and acquaintances that touch and often seriously
influence the lives of the Mitfords.

I loved this book. The story is fascinating and almost
surreal as it unfolds through the girls' schooling, debutante years and various adult exploits
played against the backdrop of the developing World War and its aftermath. Lovell has done a superb
job of presenting the zeigeist of their era and their lives in a readable and entertaining text.

I did not know
much about the Mitford sisters altho was aware of Jessica, Nancy and Diana. I did not realize until
I read this book that Unity lived so long after her suicide attempt.

It is a book that gives an
excellent view of a time and way of living that is now gone. The Mitfords were cash poor, but
managed trips, coming out seasons, servants for their various homes, etc. It is difficult for us to
understand that way of life. The Mitford parents might seem eccentric, but they were not that
unusual really for their class.

Many photographs added interest to this book. I'd recommend it
to anyone who is interested in history and how life was lived in England during WWII.

Lovell , whose work I very much admire, has the art of discussing with judging -
either her subjects or their previous biographers. I feel she leaves the judgement to the reader to
make, and in this case it is a very good thing. The Mitford family had a very controversial set of
characters. Nancy with her 'teases' was perhaps the most outrageous within the family, but
publically there was the divorce of Diana in the 1930's followed by her seemingly long affair with
Moseley (the leader of the British Fascists) and her later marriage and unapologetic support for him
and their cause. Unity Mitford is famous, or should I say infamous, for her long friendship with
Hitler. Decca ran away from home with her cousin at the age of about 18 and went to Spain to support
the Communists in the Spanish Civil War of 1936. She later married her cousin Esmond and went to
live in America where she remained very much cut off from her family - mostly it seems for reasons
of her own. The other two sisters, Pamela and Debo led quieter lives and in Debo's case only
marginally less interesting. All in all the girls were just fascinating indeed.

Lovell starts her
book with a brief summary of what isn't going to be in it. The introduction covers the material
which has been done before (try the biography by Jonathon Guiness, Diana's son, if you want to read
more on this) and then the material which _will_ be in it. Much of the book is rehashed to some
extent - well it has to be doesn't it as there is only so much new material and much of the old
stuff is just as interesting. It also needs to be there to shed light on the new material which
Lovell includes later. Each chapter is done in date order so all the sisters are followed up in each
section, although for obvious reasons some are mentioned more than others - for instance, Unity
dominates the early thirties, Decca, the later thirties,

This new material includes the use of
Decca's papers and letters, and much of this is made use of in the latter portion of the book.
Whereas there seems to be very little about Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire or Pamela the quiet
'rural' Mitford. I suppose with the Duchess still alive there might be problems with using too much
material on her or maybe, like Pamela there is not that much controversial which would make it
interesting. Nevertheles, what is used is well worth it as it gives insight into the problems the
landowning peers had in the 1930's with death taxes and inheritance.

If nothing else this family
is deadly funny. Nancy showed that in her novels Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate ( and
her other novels of course but those two really are her very best work). The family seem to have an
inordinate amount of charm, shart intellegence and wit which was present from their childhood.
Despite none of them having more than a cursory formal education, they were taught by a series of
governesses with varying levels of commitment (one spent the whole time teaching them to play a card
game called Racing Demon) - they all seemed to have taken on very formidable careers and excelled at
them.

Lovell is unable to show quite why they all excelled as they did - perhaps it was all
hereditary as they had exceptional grandparents - but she certainly does expose a very talented
family and a funny one. This book is a wonderfully easy read about a wonderfully funny interetsting
family.