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Amazon.co.uk Review
Diana Mosley was born Diana Freeman-Mitford, the fourth child of the famously eccentric Lord Redesdale and perhaps the most intellectually brilliant of all the mad, marvellous Mitford sisters. Along with intellect, she was also beautiful, glamorous and wealthy but she seemed to be prepared to sacrifice it all when she met and fell in love with Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of British fascism. Jan Dalley offers us a fascinating portrait of a complex personality and an entire era in British history and is careful not to confuse Mosley's rather paternalistic, reactionary fascism with the genocidal and murderous variety that was Nazism. Unfortunately, Diana did rather admire Hitler too and has left flattering descriptions of, among other unlikely things, his sense of humour: His imitations of Mussolini were thought particularly droll. Other colourful characters revolve around the periphery of the story: Evelyn Waugh, Lord Berners, Bryan Guinness, the adorable Nancy Mitford. But it is Diana herself who commands our attention, with all her dark ambiguity and charm. --Christopher Hart
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Diana Mosley (née Mitford) had brains, beauty and charm, wealth and social position: she risked everything to follow the dark new creed of fascism when, at twenty-two, she fell in love with Oswald Mosley, the British fascist leader, and committed her life to his ideas. In Germany she became a friend of Hitler and Goebbels; by 1940, she was in a damp cell in Holloway prison. Jan Dalley's fascinating and undeceived biography cuts through the mythology that has been built up around the Mitford sisters and around the Mosleys and reveals the truth about both an extraordinary life and the web of anti-semitism that stretched through the English aristocracy between the wars.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
While the first part of Jan Dalley's biography of Diana Mosley will be of interest mainly to readers who have not read any of the other "Mitford" books, the remainder of Dalley's book does shed light on the greater, and more interesting, part of Diana Mosley's life. I was especially pleased to be able to finally gain a better understanding of Lady Mosley's business dealings with the Nazis on behalf of the BUF. The portrayal of the complex relationship between Oswald Mosley and Diana, and the impact that their political beliefs had on their children and families was also an aspect of Diana's life that hasn't been given a full treatment until this book. It was also refreshing to realize that Ms. Dalley did not feel compelled to pass judgement on Lady Mosley's fascism in light of today's need for "political correctness". I think this book would be useful and entertaining to anyone interested int he political and social climate of the period between the wars.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a marvellous book which made me miss my bus stop. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the English upper class between the wars and the flirtation (in this case marriage) with fascism and anti semitism. I am now reading Unity's biography.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jan Dalley provides excellent and detailed Mitford family background reading in chapters 1 to 6. Without access to Diana Mosley's private papers, the biographer is somewhat hamstrung. However, the book is nevertheless fascinating and worth reading. The impressions formed by Dalley, are from interviews, conversations, and letters and faxes to the author from Diana Mosley. The book also includes source notes and a selected bibliography. The chapters of Sir Oswald Mosley's background are detailed. Those include his formative years, army service in WWI, his womanising infidelities, political affiliations and disintegrations, and the development of his ideological move towards fascism. Mosley emerges as a clever manipulative man with many contradictions. Fatally flawed in believing his political approach to the economic problems of the 1930s, would be acceptable to the majority of the British people.
Was Diana Mitford-Mosley an infamous misguided woman? Her adult life before meeting Oswald Mosley at twenty one was that of a young socialite, married at eighteen to wealthy Bryan Guinness, with a wide circle of arty and aristocratic friends. DM said: "Meeting Oswald Mosley, ultimately became the most defining moment of my life." The portrait presented by Dalley, is one of a complex woman, variously viewed as charming and unforgettable to some, and for others impenetrable, disturbing or even sinister.
Diana Mosley shows the strength her feelings here: "Mosley had become indispensable to me, and I suppose I had become indispensable to him; at any rate he encouraged me in my decision to devote the rest of my life to him, and this I did. I think it would be true to say that everyone, without exception, was furious about it." There is no mistaking her love or commitment to OM.
As a biographer Dalley is critical without lapsing into sensationalism. She presents extensively researched accounts of both subjects. That approach is sound, readers can form their own conclusions from the material presented. It was inevitable Diana Mosley would be regarded as infamous. However well meant her actions were at the time, courting Hitler and Goebells to assist her husband's political objectives, ultimately was her public downfall. When war eventually came, her activities on behalf of the British Union of Fascists made her a suspect person, therefore, a security risk. The introduction gives an account of the conditions in grim Holloway prison, where members or wives of members of Oswald Mosley's BUF were locked up in 1940. Diana Mosley was thirty then. She quickly became the leader of the BUF women incarcerated with her.
Within this 286 page account there is a vast quantity of information, including a final chapter "The Aftermath." It would be too simplistic to conclude, DM's political support of OM was only that of a loving wife for her husband. When questioned by Dalley as to the reason for her imprisonment, her reply: "It was because I had married Sir Oswald Mosley." This evasive answer is a smokescreen, indicating DM had no intention of being drawn into that kind of conversation. Given the constraints Dalley had as a biographer with her subject, the book is a superb analysis of the 1930s political climate, and two of the most controversial people of that period.
Was Diana Mitford-Mosley an infamous misguided woman? Her adult life before meeting Oswald Mosley at twenty one was that of a young socialite, married at eighteen to wealthy Bryan Guinness, with a wide circle of arty and aristocratic friends. DM said: "Meeting Oswald Mosley, ultimately became the most defining moment of my life." The portrait presented by Dalley, is one of a complex woman, variously viewed as charming and unforgettable to some, and for others impenetrable, disturbing or even sinister.
Diana Mosley shows the strength her feelings here: "Mosley had become indispensable to me, and I suppose I had become indispensable to him; at any rate he encouraged me in my decision to devote the rest of my life to him, and this I did. I think it would be true to say that everyone, without exception, was furious about it." There is no mistaking her love or commitment to OM.
As a biographer Dalley is critical without lapsing into sensationalism. She presents extensively researched accounts of both subjects. That approach is sound, readers can form their own conclusions from the material presented. It was inevitable Diana Mosley would be regarded as infamous. However well meant her actions were at the time, courting Hitler and Goebells to assist her husband's political objectives, ultimately was her public downfall. When war eventually came, her activities on behalf of the British Union of Fascists made her a suspect person, therefore, a security risk. The introduction gives an account of the conditions in grim Holloway prison, where members or wives of members of Oswald Mosley's BUF were locked up in 1940. Diana Mosley was thirty then. She quickly became the leader of the BUF women incarcerated with her.
Within this 286 page account there is a vast quantity of information, including a final chapter "The Aftermath." It would be too simplistic to conclude, DM's political support of OM was only that of a loving wife for her husband. When questioned by Dalley as to the reason for her imprisonment, her reply: "It was because I had married Sir Oswald Mosley." This evasive answer is a smokescreen, indicating DM had no intention of being drawn into that kind of conversation. Given the constraints Dalley had as a biographer with her subject, the book is a superb analysis of the 1930s political climate, and two of the most controversial people of that period.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Clear Information on Controversial Topics
Includes the information that Hitler thought Mosley's use of the term 'Fascist' for his party was unwise, recognising that it did not ring for the English. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2003 by J. Wheater
Disappointing read
I became disenchanted with this book while reading the introduction where Dalley states that, although she interviewed Diana Mosley, she was not allowed to quote from any of... Read more
Published on 15 July 2000 by Laura A. Cella
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