Adonis Diaries

The Mitford sisters; (August 22, 2009)

Lord Redesdale used to say “Every morning I scan the dailies to check what stupidities my six daughters had committed.”

The Mitford sisters were beautiful, learned, seductive, and they hoarded the front page news for many decades before WWII.  The sisters called their dad Farve or TPOM (the poor old male); their mother Muv or TPOF (the poor old female).

The sisters communicated in secret languages such as boudledidge and honnish.  In boudledidge, “fascist” was written “veedjist”.

The six sisters and their unique brother Tom lived in the environment of rich, cynical, elegant, and intelligent young men labeled by the dailies the “Bright Young Things” or the Bloomsbury group. Among these BYT were Evelyn Waugh, Cecil Beaton, Harold Nicolson, William and Harold Acton, the leading figure of this group Lytton Strachey, and Dora Carrington.

The eldest of the sisters was Nancy.  She is the author of “The pursuit of love“,  “Love in a cold climate“, and “Not a word to the Ambassador”.  She described many famous and illustrious personalities and their pranks and escapades “frasques”.  Nancy was engaged for 4 years with a young Oxford student who was the love boy of her brother Tom at Eton. She became a staunch Francophile.

The sister Marie was the most beautiful and the most recognized. Marie married Henri de Regnier, but was the girlfriend and the big passion of the writer Pierre Louys who published “Songs of Bilitis“.  Pierre married Marie’s sister Louise

Pamela was the second eldest of the sisters; she was the calmest among the sisters and was in love with nature; she was the wife of the brilliant physicist Derek Jackson for 15 years; Pamela is “normal”.

Diana and Unity converted to Nazism. Diana married the rich, handsome, and excellent dancer Bryan Guiness.  A few years later she fell in love with Oswald Mosley, the leader of the English Nazis.  Mosley founded the Union of British Fascists and the members saluted by shouting “Hello, fascist”. When Mosley’s wife Cimmie died, he shared his life between Diana and Cimmie’s sister Baba.

Diana married Mosley and was put in prison in 1940 with her husband when war was declared. As of 2001, Diana was living in Paris.

Unity was known as Bobo; only Hitler insisted on calling her Unity. The sisters called Hitler TPOF (the poor old Fuhrer). Unity fell in love with Hitler before she could meet him.  She lingered in Munich restaurants until she met the Fuhrer in February 1935.  Since then, Unity was the close traveling companion of Hitler and was given the surname “Fraulein Mitfahrt” or Miss. Traveling Companion.  As Hitler declared war to England then Unity fired a bullet in her head, sitting on bench in Munich.

The second youngest of the sister was Jessica; she was known as Decca. She converted to communism and traveled to Spain to fight against the fascist Franco. Jessica settled in the USA

Deborah, the youngest was also “normal”. Deborah is currently the Duchess of Devonshire, and lives in the family residence of Chatsworth.  She writes propaganda books about her palace, her garden, and the family history.