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The Mitford Family Booklist

Selected fiction and nonfiction related to the Mitford Family or by Mitfords

Fiction

Nancy Mitford:

• Highland Fling, 1931
• Christmas Pudding, 1932
• Wigs on the Green, 1934
• Pigeon Pie, 1939
• In the Pursuit of Love, 1945
• Love in a Cold Climate, 1949


Mitford's most famous novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, " satirize British aristocracy in the '20s and '30s through the amorous adventures of the Radletts, an exuberantly unconventional family closely modeled on Mitford's own.

Nonfiction - About the Family

• Nancy Mitford: a Memoir
  Author: Acton, Harold
  Updated 9.25.06
• Diana Mosley: Mitford Beauty, British Fascist, Hitler's Angel
  Author: De Courcy, Anne
  Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060565322  Date: 2003
  Diana Mosley is the riveting tell-all biography of one of the most intriguing, enigmatic and controversial women of the 20th century, written with her exclusive cooperation.
  Updated 9.25.06
• Counting My Chickens: And Other Home Thoughts
  Author: Devonshire, Deborah Vivien Freeman
  Publisher: FSG $ 20 ISBN: 0374130299 Date: 2002
  The Duchess of Devonshire is the youngest of the Mitford siblings, the brood that includes writers Nancy and Jessica. Here she has gathered extracts from her diaries and other writings to create a multifaceted portrait of her life at Chatsworth that is pithy, hilarious, wise, and always richly rewarding
  Updated 9.25.06
• The House of Mitford
  Author: Guiness, Jonathan
  Publisher: Viking $ 22.95 ISBN: 0670482153 Date: 1985
  The Mitfords were one of the 20th century's most intriguing and controversial families--glamorous, romantic, and--especially in politics--extreme. Among the six daughters and one son born to Lord and Lady Redesdale were Nancy, the novelist and historian; Diana, the wife of fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley; Unity, friend of Hitler; Jessica, a communist-turned-investigative journalist; and Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire. Yet, as this intimate portrait shows, the violent disagreements and flamboyant contrasts that characterized the family obscured a powerful affection and a strong underlying unity. Journalist Jonathan Guinness is the elder son of Diana Mosley.
  Updated 9.25.06
• Nancy Mitford: A Biography
  Author: Hastings, Selina
  Publisher: Dutton $ 19.95 ISBN: 0525244018 Date: 1986
  Updated 9.25.06
• The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family
  Author: Lovell, Mary S.
  Publisher: Norton $ 29.95 ISBN: 0393010430 Date: 2002
  PW Booklist
  The Mitfords had style, presence, and were extremely gifted: four would go on to write bestselling books. Above all, they were funny--hilariously and often mercilessly so. In this wise, evenhanded, and generous book, Lovell captures the vitality and extraordinary drama of a family that took the 20th century by the throat and became, in some respects, its victims.
  Suggested Reading: Sisters
  Updated 11.27.01
• Hons and Rebels/Daughters and Rebels
  Author: Mitford, Jessica
  Date: 1960
  In this "wonderfully funny and very poignant" (Philip Toynbee) autobiography, Mitford offers a fascinating study of the unusual upbringing of her famous family.
  Updated 9.25.06
• A FIne Old Conflict
  Author: Mitford, Jessica
  Date: 1977
  Details her life in the Communist party with her usual flair.
  Updated 9.25.06
• Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford
  Author: Mitford, Jessica & Peter Y. Sussman (edt)
  Publisher: Knopf $ 35 ISBN: 0375410325 Date: 2006
  PW Booklist
  The letters of "Decca" Mitford give readers a luminous self-portrait of an inimitable woman, and of 20th-century society, from the inside out.
  Suggested Reading: Sisters
  Decca: The Letters site by Peter Y. Sussman ( includes excerpts from the letters)
  Jessica Mitford Memorial Site
  Updated 9.18.06
• A Life of Contrasts
  Author: Mosley, Diana
  Date: 1977
  Memoir
  
• Loved Ones: Pen Portraits
  Author: Mosley, Diana
  Date: 1985
  Memoir
  
• Rules of the Game / Beyond the Pale: Memoirs of Sir Oswald Mosley and Family
  Author: Nicholas Mosley
  Publisher: Dalkey $ 27.95 ISBN: 0-916583-75-9 Date: 1991
  Mosley was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. He was imprisoned during World War II; so was his second wife Diana Mitford .... His son by his first marriage tells here his personal story of the family and of his struggle to come to terms with his own "split attitudes" toward the father to whom he was devoted. - LJ
  Updated 9.25.06
• Unity Mitford. an Enquiry Into Her Life and the Frivolity of Evil
  Author: Pryce-Jones, David
  Publisher: Dial ISBN: 0803788657 Date: 1977
  
  

Nonfiction - by Mitfords (selected titles)

Deborah Mitford:



• The House: Living at Chatsworth
  Author: Devonshire, Deborah Vivien Freeman
  Publisher: Holt ISBN: 0030624282 Date: 1982
  Updated 9.25.06

Jessica Mitford:



• American Way of Death Revisited
  Date: 1999
  This revised edition contains completely new chapters on prepayment and the new multinational corporations, as well as a look at the failure of the Federal Trade Commission to enforce laws the original edition of this book helped bring about.
• The American Way of Birth
  Date: 1992
  Three decades ago, Jessica Mitford became a household name with the publication of her long-running bestseller The American Way of Death. Now, in the climactic work of her career, she has found a subject at the other end of the spectrum of human experience. In an era of worry and outrage over health care, this challenging book takes a long look at how Americans are born.
  Updated 9.25.06
• Grace and an English Heart
  Date: 1898
  Sifting through fact, fiction, and folklore, the author has a good time, and so, too, will her readers. The biography of Grace Darling, the first Victorian "media" heroine, is told with characteristic wit and intelligence.
  Updated 9.25.06

Nancy Mitford:



• Madame de Pompadour, 1954
• Voltaire in Love, 1957
• The Sun King, 1966
• Frederick the Great, 1970