“The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family”, by Mary S. Lovell

384 pages, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN-13: 978-0393010435

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell is just it says it is: a group biography of one of the most interesting and stylish families to come out of Britain during the interwar period. The sisters, six daughters (and one son) of David Freeman-Mitford, 2^nd Baron Redesdale and his wife Sydney Bowles, became celebrated and, at times, scandalous figures during their lifetimes:

• Nancy Mitford (November 28^th, 1904 – June 30^th, 1973) 
• Pamela “Pam” Mitford (November 25^th, 1907 – April 12^th, 1994) 
• Thomas “Tom” Mitford (January 2^nd, 1909 – March 30^th, 1945)
• Diana Mitford (June 17^th, 1910 – August 11^th, 2003)
• Unity Valkyrie “Bobo” Mitford (August 8^th, 1914 – May 28^th, 1948)
• Jessica Lucy “Decca” Mitford (September 11^th, 1917 – July 22^nd, 1996) 
• Deborah Vivien “Debo” Mitford (March 31^st, 1920 – September 24^th, 2014)

According to The Times journalist Ben Macintyre they were caricatured as: Nancy the Novelist, Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur, Diana the Fascist, Unity the Hitler-lover, Jessica the Communist and Deborah the Duchess (if you read the book you’ll discover just how accurate these thumbnail descriptions are).

I’ve read several biographies in my time and I have to say that this one was a real chore to get through; starting about halfway, after the Second World War, it became increasingly dull and difficult as the Sisters lives’ just kind of became rather conventional and, therefore, boring. But mostly it is because of the author: Lovell writes like a society gossip columnist with a style that is uninspired with any attempts at showing the wit and wisdom of her subjects invariably falling flat. It isn’t a terribly detailed history, nor is it equally balanced as far as information about each of the sisters is concerned: Jessica and Diana, each of whom the author interviewed, are given a lot more space than the others. She covers Unity’s “Hitler Years”, of course, but otherwise we learn very little that is new about Unity; likewise, Deborah (Duchess of Devonshire and, along with Diana, the only other sister still alive when this book was published) and Pam get scanty coverage, and even Nancy is relegated to the background.

And you cannot write about the Mitford’s without mentioning Der Führer, a man who held such sway over a good part of the family (even at the end of the war Tom Mitford was praising him) that you wish the author had asked herself just how could such educated or sophisticated people have been taken in by him. It’s not that others weren’t, as well, but that’s no excuse; what was it about this family’s psychology that turned many of them into admirers of a man so widely reviled? The author makes all sorts of excuses for them, showing that over the course of her research she became an admirer of the family and, thus, a lousy biographer, unable to see the bad as well as the good in a dispassionate manner. Her constant apologies become tiresome over time as the book begins to skate across the surface of grand homes filled with all kinds of pullulating cousins, nieces and nephews.

Lovell also occasionally doesn’t follow up on information that she presents, as for example making a point of saying the Diana’s husband, Sir Oswald Mosley, lost a huge amount of money on a radio venture and recounting his failure to reenter politics after the war – and then not describing how the Mosley’s moved from one lovely home to another, redecorating “with Diana's usual flair” without explaining where the money came from to support this lifestyle. Overall, the, The Sisters serves more as a primer on the Mitford Sisters than a biography; there are probably better works out there that I will have to find.