21 Interview, Oakland, California, October 1999.
22 OSU, Constancia ‘Dinky’ Romilly to Maya Angelou, 10 December 1994.
23 Dinky was, and still is, a highly qualified casualty nurse in A & E. Interestingly Decca identified Dinky as possessing many of Pam’s ‘Womanly’ qualities even as a small child; see her letters to Sydney in 1941–3.
24 RT’s address at the memorial service held for JM in London.
25 DM to the author, 25 February 2001.
26 During one visit to Chatsworth for research the author conducted a mini-census, asking people at nearby tables in the restaurant what had most impressed them. Almost universally they commented on the ‘warm and well-cared-for atmosphere – like a family home’.
27 The author’s late husband, Geoffrey A.H. Watts, chaired and served on the boards of over sixty companies. He said several colleagues told him that appointing Debo to the board of Tarmac Ltd was the best thing the company had ever done.
28 YUL, SR to JLM, 30 March 1958.
Acknowledgements
and Credits
During the research for this book I was given a considerable amount of help and assistance by the family, primarily Debo (the Duchess of Devonshire), Diana (the Hon. Lady Mosley), Robert Treuhaft and Constancia ‘Dinky’ Romilly. I should like to express my immense gratitude to them, and also to the following who have helped in various ways:
Joe Allen, Rosemary Bailey, ‘Rab’ Bailey, Norman Bell, K.V. Blight (House of Lords Archivist), Julia Budworth, Michael Burn, Ruth Caruth (Beinecke Library, Yale University), Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, Richard Cohen, Betty Colchester Wemyss, Ellen R. Cordes (Beinecke Library, Yale University), Gill Day, Pele de Lappe, Katie Edwards (Decca’s secretary), Penny Finchmullen, Marge Frantz, Elva Griffith (Ohio State University), the Hon. Desmond Guinness, Jonathan Guinness (Lord Moyne), George Gutekunst, Janie Hampton, Bevis Hillier, Quentin Keynes, Karen J. Leonard, Lady Elizabeth Longford, Lord Longford, Graeme R. Lovell (advice on inheritance taxes), Mrs J. MacKinnon, Priscilla McWilliams, Helen Marchant (secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire), Doreen Morris, Charlotte Mosley, the Hon. June Ogilvy, Bernadette Rivett, Doug Scherer (Ohio State University), Geoffrey D. Smith (Ohio State University), Madeau Stewart, Peter Y. Sussman, Rosemary Taylor, Janet Topp-Fargion (British Library Sound Archive), Sally Toynbee, Michael Waite, Doris ‘Dobbie’ Walker.
Copyright Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the following for their generosity in granting permission for copyright material to be printed in this book, as follows:
Unpublished Material
The Duchess of Devonshire, for quotations from letters by Sydney (Lady Redesdale), Mrs Pamela Jackson, Unity Mitford, and her own unpublished writings, also the unpublished writings of Nancy Mitford and to quote the passage from Wigs on the Green.
Diana, Lady Mosley for unpublished and published quotations by herself and Sir Oswald Mosley, and other members of her immediate family.
Robert Treuhaft for quotations by Jessica (Decca) Mitford, himself and Constancia ‘Dinky’ Romilly.
The Rare Books and MSS Department of Ohio State University, which owns the physical property of Jessica Mitford’s papers.
The Beinecke Library at Yale University, which owns the physical property of the James Lees-Milne papers.
Published Material
For quotations from various books (see bibliography for full details of publication):
Desmond Elliott and the Estate of Sir John Betjeman to quote from letters and poetry of Sir John Betjeman.
David Higham Associates for permission to quote from the works of James Lees-Milne.
Hodder & Stoughton for permission to quote from Love from Nancy.
Sally Toynbee for permission to quote from Friends Apart.
The Lady to quote from articles by Nancy Mitford.
Cassell Plc for quotations from Beloved Infidel.
Peters, Fraser & Dunlop Group for quotations from the published works of Nancy Mitford: Love in a Cold Climate, The Pursuit of Love, The Water Beetle and Wigs on the Green. And from the works of Nicholas Mosley: Rules of the Game and Beyond the Pale.
The Sunday Times for permission to quote from the Julian Jebb article ‘The Mitford Sisters’.
The Trustees of the Jessica Mitford Estate for permission to quote from Hons and Rebels and A Fine Old Conflict.
NB The author has assumed ‘fair usage’ for quotations of less than 200 words from any publication. Strenuous attempts have been made to contact all copyright holders. In the few cases where it has not been possible to trace assigns and heirs, the author apologizes, and requests that copyright holders make contact through the publishers. Any such notification will be fully acknowledged in future editions of this book.
I should like to sincerely thank those involved in the various production processes of this book. At Little, Brown (London), Richard Beswick, Viv Redman and Hazel Orme. At W.W. Norton (NY), Starling Lawrence, who was responsible for the book’s conception. And my literary agent Robert Ducas, who is a never-failing source of support.
Finally, my thanks to David Baldwin, Vanda Hamarneh, Fatie Darwish and Shadi Kabalan (‘Song of a Tiger’), who, each in their own way, were of assistance when the page proofs of this book went astray between London and Damascus.
Picture Credits
Devonshire collection, Chatsworth, by kind permission of the Duchess of Devonshire: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 52, 54, 57, 61 (by kind permission of Desmond Guinness)
OSU: 12, 13, 17, 25, (by kind permission of Robert Treuhaft)
Diana Mosley: 23, 32, 42, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60
Hulton Getty: 24
Associated Press: 35
Popperfoto: 48
Bibliothèque Nationale: 51
Robert Treuhaft: 53, 62, 63
Select Bibliography
All books published in London unless otherwise stated.
Acton, Harold, Memoir of Nancy Mitford (Hamish Hamilton, 1975).
Amory, Mark, Letters of Evelyn Waugh (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980).
Attallah, Naim, More of a Certain Age (Quartet Books, 1993).
Barrow, Andrew, Gossip (Hamish Hamilton, 1978).
Boothby, Robert, I Fight to Live (Heinemann, 1947).
Recollections of a Rebel (Hutchinson, 1978).
Bowles, Thomas Gibson, The Log of the Nereid (Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1889).
Bullock, Alan, Hitler – A Study in Tyranny (Oldhams Press, 1952).
Butler, Lucy (ed.) Letters Home: The Letters of Robert Byron (John Murray, 1991).
Carpenter, Humphrey, The Brideshead Generation (Faber and Faber, 1989).
Carrington, Dora, Letters and Diaries (Cape, 1970).
Churchill, Winston, The Second World War, 5 vols (Cassell, 1948–54).
Collier, Peter and Horowitz, David, The Kennedys (Secker & Warburg, 1984).
Cowles, Virginia, Looking for Trouble (Hamish Hamilton, 1941).
Dalley, Jan, Diana Mosley (Faber and Faber, 2000).
Dalton, Hugh, The Fateful Years (Frederick Muller, 1957).
Davie, Mark, Diaries of Evelyn Waugh (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976).
Devonshire, Duchess of, The House (Macmillan, 1982).
The Estate (Macmillan, 1990).
Durr, Virginia Foster, Outside the Magic Circle (University of Alabama Press, 1990).
Graham, Sheilah, Beloved Infidel (Cassell, 1933).
Guinness, Bryan, Singing out of Tune (Putnam, 1933).
Dairy Not Kept (Compton Press, 1981).
Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine, The House of Mitford (Hutchinson, 1984).
Halle, Kay, The Young Unpretender (Heinemann, 1971).
Hanfstaengl, Ernst (‘Putzi’), Hitler, the Missing Years (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957).
Hastings, Selina, Nancy Mitford (Hamish Hamilton, 1985).
Hillier, Bevis, You
ng Betjeman (John Murray, 1988).
Holroyd, Michael, Lytton Strachey (Chatto & Windus, 1994).
Ingram, Kevin, Rebel – The Life of Esmond Romilly (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985).
Lees-Milne, James, Another Self (Hamish Hamilton, 1970).
Ancestral Voices (John Murray, 1975).
Caves of Ice (John Murray, 1983).
A Mingled Measure (John Murray, 1994).
Ancient as the Hills (John Murray, 1997).
Through Wood and Dale (John Murray, 1998).
Deep Romantic Chasm (John Murray, 2000).
Leslie, Anita, Cousin Randolph (Hutchinson, 1985).
The Gilt and the Gingerbread (Hutchinson, 1981).
Lewis, Jeremy, Cyril Connolly (Cape, 1997).
Lockhart, Sir Robert Bruce, Diaries (Macmillan, 1973).
Lycett-Green, Candida (ed.), John Betjeman – Letters (Methuen, 1990).
Mitford, Jessica, Hons and Rebels (Victor Gollancz, 1960).
The American Way of Death (Simon & Schuster, 1963).
A Fine Old Conflict (Michael Joseph, 1977).
Poison Penmanship (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1979).
Kind and Unusual Punishment (Knopf, New York, 1973).
Faces of Philip (Heinemann, 1984).
Mitford, Nancy, Wigs on the Green (Butterworth, 1935).
The Pursuit of Love (Hamish Hamilton, 1947).
Love in a Cold Climate (Hamish Hamilton, 1949).
The Blessing (Hamish Hamilton, 1951).
Noblesse Oblige (Hamish Hamilton, 1956).
Don’t Tell Alfred (Hamish Hamilton, 1960).
The Water Beetle (Hamish Hamilton, 1962).
Mosley, Charlotte, Love from Nancy – The Letters of Nancy Mitford (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993).
Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh (Sceptre, 1996).
A Talent to Annoy (Beaufort Books, New York, 1986).
Mosley, Diana, A Life of Contrasts (Hamish Hamilton, 1977).
Loved Ones (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985).
The Duchess of Windsor (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1980).
Mosley, Nicholas, The Rules of the Game (Secker & Warburg, 1982).
Beyond the Pale (Secker & Warburg, 1983).
Mosley, Sir Oswald, My Life (Nelson, 1970).
Murphy, Sophia, The Mitford Family Album (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985).
Nicholson, Harold, Diaries and Letters, 3 vols (Collins, 1970).
Powell, Violet, Five out of Six (Heinemann, 1960).
Pryce-Jones, David, Unity Mitford (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976).
Quennell, Peter, The Marble Foot (Collins, 1976).
Ravensdale, Irene, In Many Rhythms (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1953).
Redesdale, Lord, Memories, 2 vols (Hutchinson, 1915).
Romilly, Esmond, Boadilla (Macdonald, 1938).
Skidelsky, Robert, Oswald Mosley (Macmillan, 1975).
Soames, Mary, Clementine Churchill (Cassell, 1979).
Soames, Mary (ed.), Speaking for Themselves: The Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill (Doubleday, 1998).
Speer, Albert, Inside the Third Reich (Sphere Books, 1975).
Sykes, Christopher, Evelyn Waugh (Collins, 1975).
Trevor-Roper, H.R., Hitler’s Table Talk (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1953).
Toynbee, Philip, Friends Apart (MacGibbon and Kee, 1954).
Zeigler, Philip, Diana Cooper (Hamish Hamilton, 1981).
Index
Acton, Harold 68, 108, 127, 497, 512
Acton, William 127, 254, 439, 494
aesthetes 108
Air Time Ltd 208–9, 211, 253–4, 273, 274, 321, 325–6
air travel, transatlantic 292–3
Alcoholics Anonymous 520
Allen, Bill 209, 211, 325–6
Allen, Joe 265
Allhusen, Dorothy 218, 219, 221, 226
Allies Club 356
Almassy, Janos von 93, 129–30, 186, 242, 243; Unity and 206, 270, 285, 290, 295, 298, 304, 305, 306
Almassy, Teddy von 300–1
Alternative, The (Oswald Mosley) 416
Aly Khan, prince 423
Amende, May 129, 132
American Way of Birth, The (Jessica Mitford) 481
American Way of Death, The (Jessica Mitford) 471, 472, 477–80, 521, 524
Angelou, Maya 484, 520, 521, 523, 524
Anschluss 242–3, 244
anti-Semitism 187–9, 195–6, 263, 285–6, 417, 517
Appleshaw, Hampshire 128
‘Arties’ 70–1
Asthall Manor 44–52; Christmas 50–1; ghosts 44–5, 87; library 45, 52, 86; sold 78–9
Astor, Nancy 154–5
Atholl, Katherine Ramsay, Duchess of 203
Aurania, SS 279
Baarova, Lida 210
Bader, Douglas 416
Bailey, Dorothy, née Bowles (‘Aunt Weenie’) 20, 21, 49, 231, 468, 476
Bailey, Richard 351
Bailey, Rosemary see Mitford, Rosemary
Bailey, Tim 354
Bailey family 24, 49, 301, 312, 354
Baldwin, Oliver 136
Baum, Frau 171, 172
Bavaria 176
Bayonne 239
Bayreuth 176, 268
Bayreuth Festival 205, 207, 247, 287–8
Bazely, Lady 53
BBC 208, 507, 516, 517
Beaton, Nancy 149
Beaverbrook, Max, 1st Baron 218, 320, 347
Bedell, Miss 78, 85, 90
Beecham, Sir Thomas 141
Beit, Lady see Mitford, Clementine
Bell, Ikey 419–20
Bellevue Laboratory, France 421
Berners, Gerald, 14th Baron 162–3, 324, 414, 415
Betjeman, John 22, 108, 127, 159, 197, 397, 466; contribution to Nancy’s book 451, 452; depicted in Christmas Pudding 148; description of Faringdon 415; ditty on Mitford girls 130; helps to find school for Mosley children 414; relationship with Pam 128–30; visits Biddesden with future wife, and has supernatural experience 130
Betts, Mrs 370, 371, 375
Bexhill 34–5
Biddesden 102, 126–8, 130, 140, 142, 167, 185
Bilbao 227–8, 232–3, 238, 239
Birkenhead, Lord see Smith, F.E.
Birket, Norman 360–1
Blake, William 46, 71
Blessing, The (Nancy Mitford) 426, 453
Blomfield Road, Maida Vale 213, 330
Bloomingdale’s, New York 291
Blor, Nanny see Dicks, Laura
Blunt, Wilfred Scawen 25
Boadilla (Esmond Romilly) 235–6, 238–9
Boadilla del Monte, battle of 219
Boer War 13–14, 71
Books and Bookmen 460, 496
Boothby, Bob 141
Boudledidge 51, 88, 104, 120, 500
Bowles, Dorothy see Bailey, Dorothy
Bowles, Geoffrey (uncle) 31, 476
Bowles, George (uncle) 16–17, 476
Bowles, Jessica (grandmother) 10, 30
Bowles, Sydney see Mitford, Sydney
Bowles, Thomas (‘Tap’) (grandfather) 9, 10, 12, 15–16, 17, 20, 30, 31, 34; death 62
Bowyer family 24
Brabazon, Lord 14
Braun, Eva 197, 247, 248, 250, 299
Brayfield 120, 121
Breslau 268
‘Brideshead generation’ 68–9
Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh) 68, 395
‘Bright Young People’ 108–9, 111
Brin, Doris (‘Dobbie’), later Walker 373, 376, 404
British Expeditionary Force 314, 322
British Union of Fascists 136–8, 143, 248–9, 264, 274; Air Time fundraising project 208–9, 211, 253–4, 273, 274, 321, 325–6; Bill Allen as possible spy 209, 211, 325–6; links with Italian Fascists 153, 184; officials imprisoned during war 324, 328, 359, 362; post-war 417; rallies 143, 194; success 194–5; Unity joins 156, 157, 163–4, 264–5; see also Mosley, Oswald