The Mitfords: A family like no other

There has never been a family of women with such diverse and dissimilar approaches to life, literature and politics

Recently there have been a number of anniversaries exclusively for women. While browsing through lists of new books published abroad which were written by women, my eye fell on The Six by Laura Thompson which was about the notorious Mitford sisters. I promptly telephoned the librarian of my club and ordered a copy which will take another month to arrive so I had to tax the old A M memory to decide which clutch of sisters was the most famous. It ended on a tie between the Soong family of China of which there were three and the Mitford family of England that had six. The two families had absolutely nothing in common. The Soong sisters were right wing, ambitious and totally loyal to China. The eldest married H H Kung, a man of stupefying wealth. The next wedded Sun-Yat-Sen, the father of modern China and the first president of the republic. The youngest married Chiang-Kai-Shek, head of the Kuomintang who led the war against Japan in which Mao and Chou-en-lai had to join. Meanwhile in England the public wondered what pranks the infamous six aristocratic Mitford sisters would get up to. No two were alike — Nancy the controversial novelist, Pamela the quiet one who shunned the spotlight, Diana the dedicated fascist, Unity the dyed-in-the-wool Nazi, Jessica the devoted Communist and Deborah the duchess who had a tremendous head for business. I don’t think there has ever been such a witty, outlandish, talked and written about family of women with such diverse and dissimilar approaches to life, literature and politics. Of the six, the ones I found the most interesting were Nancy, Unity and Diana.

Nancy Mitford wrote in an essay in noblesse oblige that the English aristocracy is the only real aristocracy left in the world, even if it appeared to be on the verge of decadence. It has political power through the House of Lords and real social position through the Queen. Accused of being a snob, she quoted from Professor Alan Ross of Birmingham University who pointed out that it was solely by their language that the upper classes nowadays are distinguished since they are neither cleaner, richer, nor better educated than anybody else. Nancy also said it was Professor Ross that invented the U and non-U formula to distinguish the U or Upper from the Middle and Working classes. Nancy stated quite emphatically that the aristocrat does not work for money, and nobility in England is based on title and not on bloodline. Solely by its language it is possible to identify them. In the Victorian and Edwardian periods this was not the case. In fact the professor says there are, it is true, a few minor points of life which may serve to demarcate the upper class, but they are minor ones, and he is concerned in this essay only with the linguistic demarcation. This line, for the professor, is, often, a line between, on one hand, gentlemen and, on the other, persons who, though not gentlemen, must at first sight appear, or would like to appear, as such. Thus, habits of speech peculiar to the lower classes find no place in this article. He also addresses the written language, considering the following points: names on envelopes, the beginning of letters, names on cards, postal addresses on envelopes at the heads of letters, and on cards and finally letter-endings.

Unity wrote to one of her sisters how poor Adolf must have suffered when his best friend Roehm was shot by storm troopers when he was caught in bed with a young man. Actually was Hitler who had ordered the execution of a notorious homosexual. Diana married the British fascist Oswald Mosley in Joseph Goebbels’s private study in Berlin. And guess who the guest of honor was. The one and only Adolf Hitler. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the book.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2016.

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