Today marks the 114th birthday of Nancy Mitford, the eldest of the notorious “Mitford Sisters.” I’ve been intrigued by this family for so long. I am not alone in my obsession. There are at least 4 biographies and numerous anthologies of the sisters’ letters to each other that have been published. One of those letter anthologies was what originally peaked my interest in a Barnes and Noble in 2004; it was there that I started reading about them and from then on I was hooked. 

Some call them “The Kardashians of their time” which I suppose has some merit when you consider that the family were aristocrats (family of Winston Churchill) and that their antics placed them in newspapers with frightening regularity.  But what makes them stand apart were not only how headstrong they were in their vastly different believes but more importantly the time period they lived in made their conflicting ideologies a microcosm of the powder keg that was the 1930s-40s. 

In birth order the family:

• Nancy Mitford- Author and contemporary of Evelyn Waugh
• Pamela Mitford- Known as the quietest Mitford who was a very good gardener
• Tom Mitford- The only boy and only one to always be in all the girls’ good graces. Was killed at the tail end of World War II
• Diana Mitford- Known as the beauty of the family. She married the heir to the Guiness Beer fortune before falling in love with Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Fascist Party. When she and Oswald eventually married the ceremony was at Joseph Goebbels’ house with Adolf Hittler as a guest
• Unity Mitford- Was always the most high strung of the family (and that is saying a lot) She became obsessed with Adolf Hittler and followed him around Germany until he noticed her and the two became friends (and some speculated more.) She was driven to shoot herself in the head when war was declared as she loved her country but also loved Hitler. She did not die but rather incapacitated herself to a child like state and died a number of years later.
• Jessica Mitford- The Communist of the party, it was said that when her and Unity shared a bedroom there was a divide down the center of the room with swastikas on one side and sickles on the other. She eventually escaped her family by marrying her cousin and then after his death moved to the United States and married a fellow worker in the Communist Party. She eventually wrote a number of books, among them one about the funeral industry. When she died her eulogy was given by one of her best friends, Maya Angelou. 
• Deborah Mitford: The youngest, became the Duchess of Devonshire and ran one of the largest family estates in the country

“There they are, held like flies in the amber of that moment—click goes the camera and on goes life; the minutes, the days, the years, the decades, taking them further and further from that happiness and promise of youth, from the hopes Aunt Sadie must have had for them, and from the dreams they dreamed for themselves. I often think there is nothing quite so poignantly sad as old family groups.”
― Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love

But this is a post about Nancy and celebrating her birth. But to talk about Nancy without the other Mitfords does not completely make sense. She seemed to have this oxymoronic attachment to them. She wrote about them in her first novel, Highland Fling, as well as her second Christmas Pudding. She also wrote Wigs on the Green to lampoon her sister’s fascist boyfriend, Oswald Mosley. 

For me her power lies in her as a story teller and de facto head of the family. For all intents and purposes she should be the hero of this story. Being the strongest sister that is not a Fascist, Nazi or Communist she is what our modern sensibilities should say “Thank goodness we have this moral compass in this story!” But as with anything having to do with this family, there is rarely a black or a white. She was notoriously stubborn and sometimes rude. She tormented her sisters and brother as children. She insisted that her sister Diana be put in jail (which given Diana’s politics makes sense) but insisted on keeping her there for many years even when her cousin, Winston Churchill, thought that maybe they were treating Diana and Oswald a bit harshly. That’s right. She insisted her sister stay in a tower in a London jail. She by many accounts was not a happy person. She had one unsuccessful sham marriage and could not conceive children though she wanted them passionately. The love of her life, a French military man, would barely give her the time of day. She died in 1972 after a long illness and after living alone for years.

“Life is sometimes sad and often dull, but there are currants in the cake, and here is one of them.”
― Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love

What sticks out in my mind, and has been the source of a writing project of mine is that the sisters became infinitely fragmented after the start of World War II. The only time they came together (with exception of Unity who had died in 1948) was during the last 6 months of Nancy’s life when she was diagnosed with Blood Cancer in 1973. It was the first time in 20 years that Jessica and Diana, the most politically polar opposite sisters, would see each other . It was also the last time they would see each other. It seems to make sense that a large part of Nancy’s legacy would be to bring them together as a family, whether it be for better or for worse. She leaves a literary dialogue of one of the most polarizing families of the 20th century. Happy Birthday, Nancy!