The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family (71 page)

7
NM to Mark Ogilvie-Grant (undated), in Hastings,
Nancy Mitford
, p. 74.

8
Lees-Milne, James,
Ancient as the Hills
(John Murray, 1997), p. 158.

9
Ibid
., p. 113.

10
The Times
, 16 June 1933: ‘. . . In an undefended suit Mrs Diana Guinness . . . prayed for the dissolution of her marriage with Bryan Guinness on the grounds of his adultery with . . .’

11
NM to Hamish Erskine, 14 June 1933, in
Love from Nancy
, p. 85.

12
Love from Nancy
, p. 87.

13
Sykes, Christopher,
Evelyn Waugh
(Collins, 1975), p. 41.

14
OSU/1637, JM to DD, 26 April 1985.

15
Violet, sister of Lady Rennell and wife of Edward Stuart Wortley.

16
Love from Nancy
, p. 90.

17
Hastings,
Nancy Mitford
, p. 86.

18
Mosley, Nicholas, The
Rules of the Game
(Secker & Warburg), p. 248.

19
Ibid
., p. 250.

20
Mary Leiter Curzon died in 1906 aged thirty-six, two years after giving birth to her third daughter, Alexandra, from an infection following a miscarriage. Cimmie was aged eight at the time of her mother’s death.

21
Rules of the Game
, p. 252

22
Mosley, Diana,
Loved Ones: Sir Oswald Mosley
(Sidgwick & Jackson, 1983), p. 166.

23
Rules of the Game
, p. 297.

24
Ibid
., p. 258.

25
DM to the author, January 2001.

26
Rules of the Game
, p. 298.

27
Ibid
., p. 259.

28
DM, in conversation with the author, Paris, 2000, and letter, November 2000.

29
Buchan, William,
The Rags of Time
(Ashford, Buchan & Enright, c. 1985), p. 142.

30
Mosley, Diana,
A Life of Contrasts
(Hamish Hamilton, 1977), p. 106.

31
Ibid
., p. 107.

32
Ibid
., pp. 108–9.

33
BBC2, 2000:
The Age of Nazism – Tourists of the Revolution
.

34
JM to Marge Frantz, 25 May 1986: ‘we were forbidden to shave legs (we did it anyway) . . . and wear lipstick . . . why? I suppose that my parents . . . disliked the idea of trying to attract men by these artificial means.’

35
DR to DM, quoted in Dalley, Jan,
Diana Mosley
(Faber and Faber, 2000), p. 152, and Jonathan and Catherine Guinness,
The House of Mitford
(Hutchinson, 1984), p. 361.

36
Ibid
., p. 112.

37
Pryce-Jones, David,
Unity Mitford
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), p. 73.

38
NM to DM, in
Love from Nancy
, p. 92.

39
OSU/1701, JM to SR, May 1934: ‘I’m so glad you enjoyed your voyage (to Gib) in spite of your thinking it wouldn’t be much fun . . .’

40
Mitford, Jessica,
A Fine Old Conflict
(Michael Joseph, 1977), p. 25.

41
OSU/1701, JM to SR, various dates.

42
OSU/1642, JM to Idden (Ann Farrer Horne), 14 August 1980.

Chapter 8: Unity and the Führer, 1934–5

1
Mosley, Charlotte,
The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford
(Sceptre, 1996), p. 366.

2
David Redesdale wrote in his copy of this book, against this disclaimer, ‘A beastly lie!’

3
Mitford, Nancy,
Wigs on the Green
(Thornton and Butterworth, 1935), p. 16.

4
Ibid
., p. 193.

5
Daily Sketch
, 9 February 1935, but most daily newspapers carried this story.

6
OSU/1567, JM to DD, 14 May 1993.

7
DM to the author, January 2001.

8
Edmund Heines, a senior SA ‘Brownshirts’ officer.

9
UM to DM, 1 July 1934.

10
Pryce-Jones, David,
Unity Mitford
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), p. 86.

11
The two children spent periods at their father’s house, Biddesden. Bryan and Diana remained on exceptionally good terms after their divorce. ‘He was always in and out of Eaton Square,’ Diana wrote to the author (16 January 2001), ‘and I often went to Biddesden to see the little boys when they were not with me. I’ve got hundreds of letters from Bryan, we became great friends.’

12
Mitford, Diana,
A Life of Contrasts
(Hamish Hamilton, 1977), p. 118.

13
Ibid
.

14
SR essay quoted in Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine,
The House of Mitford
(Hutchinson, 1985), p. 365.

15
Mitford, Jessica,
Hons and Rebels
(Victor Gollancz, 1960), p. 81.

16
Katz, Otto, The
Brown Book of Hitler Terror and the Burning of the Reichstag
(John Lane, 1933).

17
Hons and Rebels
, p. 73.

18
Toynbee, Philip,
Friends Apart
(MacGibbon & Kee, 1954), p. 18.

19
JM to DM, 19 January 1935, in
The House of Mitford
, p. 367.

20
JM to DR,
ibid
., pp. 368–9.

21
JM to SR,
ibid
., p. 369.

22
Michael Burn, telephone interview with the author, July 2000.

23
Diana Mosley’s biographer, Jan Dalley, doubts that Hitler did not know of Unity’s relationship with Mosley. She believes that Hitler would have had an intelligence dossier on
Mosley
and Diana, and might have been using Unity and, subsequently, Diana to obtain casual information during their regular fireside chats in the years leading up to the war. On the other hand it is obvious that from this time (the fourth recorded meeting of Unity and Hitler) her family connections were known.

24
22 June 1935.

25
The House of Mitford
, pp. 377–8.

26
Unity Mitford, chapter 7.

27
Acton, Harold
Nancy Mitford
(Hamish Hamilton, 1975), p. 78.

28
Unity Mitford, p. 127.

29
Ibid
., p. 84. However, it should be remembered that Paulette Helleu was never very friendly with either Unity or Diana, and she never got over her jealousy of the latter’s close friendship with her father.

30
Joe Allen, of J.A. Allen and Co. Ltd, publishers, in a private letter to the author, June 2000, and in conversation.

31
Hons and Rebels
, p. 80.

32
DM to the author, January 2001.

Chapter 9: Secret Marriage, 1935–7

1
Pryce-Jones, David,
Unity Mitford
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), pp. 144 and 149.

2
Ibid
.

3
UM to SR, in Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine
The House of Mitford
(Hutchinson, 1984), p. 378.

4
NM to DM, 18 June 1935, in Mosley, Charlotte,
Love from Nancy
(Hodder & Stoughton, 1993), p. 100.

5
NM to UM, 21 June 1935, in
ibid
., p. 101.

6
NM to DM, 7 November 1934, in
ibid
., p. 94.

7
Bernard Shaw, Fabian Lecture: ‘In Praise of Guy Fawkes’, 1933.

8
Skidelsky, Robert, Oswald
Mosley
(Macmillan, 1975), p. 331.

9
Speech at Ealing, 11 November 1934.

10
OSU/1709, NM to JM, 26 May 1937: Nancy decided not to post this letter, she explained, ‘because of my weak mind & not wanting to be tortured when the G[erman]s have conquered us’.

11
Lees-Milne, James,
Prophesying Peace
(John Murray, 1997), p. 444.

12
Mosley, Nicholas,
Beyond the Pale
(Secker & Warburg, 1983), p. 390.

13
Tavener vs Mosley, 1937.

14
DM to the author, November 2000.

15
Dalley, Jan,
Diana Mosley
(Faber and Faber, 2000), p. 196.

16
The villa was at Posillipo, and belonged to Lord Rennell, Peter Rodd’s father.

17
Sir Oswald
Mosley
to DM, in
Beyond the Pale
, p. 366.

18
DM to the author, January 2001.

19
Beyond the Pale
, p. 364.

20
Ibid
., p. 366

21
Ibid
.

22
Mosley, Diana,
Loved Ones: Sir Oswald Mosley
(Sidgwick & Jackson, 1983), p. 167.

23
Mitford, Jessica,
Hons and Rebels
(Victor Gollancz, 1960), p. 87.

24
CHP, 1935/36, JM to NM, undated.

25
OSU/1566, JM to DD, 11 June 1990.

26
Hons and Rebels
, pp. 87–8.

27
Tea at Chartwell, c. 1928. The picture depicts a scene in the dining room, around which are gathered Thérèse Sickert, Diana Mitford, Edward Marsh, Winston S. Churchill, Professor Lindemann, Randolph Churchill, Diana Churchill, Clementine Churchill and Richard Sickert. It can be viewed at Chartwell, in the studio.

28
Unity Mitford, p. 164.