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The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (Paperback)

by Charlotte Mosley (Editor)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 830 pages
  • Publisher: HarperPerennial (5 May 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841157740
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841157740
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,401 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #8 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Essays, Journals & Letters

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Product Description

Review

'"The Mitfords" are all competitively exasperating!but slowly, cumulatively, as age and death are stared gallantly in the eye, I ended in tears.' The Guardian 'The letters are all compulsively readable!and have a funny, sharp and stylish freshness that suggests they could have just pinged into your inbox'.' The Times Pick of the Week '"The Mitfords" is a thrilling and moving, funny and serious book. Here is a story of a family, of loyalty, love, humour, tragedy and at times, chilling deception, a tale that sometimes amuses and horrifies, but always fascinates!with the diminishing use of the letter as a means of communication, one wonders if there will ever again be such a luminous correspondence.' Telegraph 'Charlotte Mosley's glorious collection -- by turns hilarious, moving and shocking -- should be read by both detractors and admirers, because these letters are social history, pure and simple.' Waterstones Books Quarterly 'This is a long book which gets better and better as you proceed, the genius of it being in its gathering momentum!As editor, (Charlotte Mosley's) quiet rigour and fearlessness of skeletons both in and out of cupboards must be saluted!one is aware of having read something not only unique but very moving too!' The Express 'Bright, intimate and moving correspondence'. Telegraph


Times, Pick of the Week

`The letters are all compulsively readable...funny, sharp and stylish...they could have just pinged into your inbox.'
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters 4.2 out of 5 stars (23)
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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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75 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly wonderful read - I'd like to give it 6 stars!, 29 Oct 2007
By Geoffrey Woollard (Cambridgeshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (Hardcover)
"Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters," is a truly wonderful read. I have just finished the 800-plus pages and wish very much that there were 800 more. I'd like to give it 6 stars, but dear old Amazon (whose price is a giveaway £14.95 instead of the RRP of £25.00) only permits one to praise to a point. I willingly go beyond that point and any buyer who is a little hesitant about getting the book for Christmas and/or adding more copies to the order for the rellies that are loved or hated - both types will appreciate it, even if they can't or couldn't stand the Mitford 'girls' - should go ahead right away.

I have read somewhere that Charlotte Mosley (daughter-in-law of Diana Mitford, aka Lady Mosley) had access to some 12,000 personal letters exchanged by the sisters over nearly eighty years and has only chosen to use 5% of them for the book. But what a literal hoard of literary treasure!

Mrs Mosley has selected well and edited superbly, bringing out and explaining with her own notes the deep and long-lasting relationships of the sisters, the context of their times, their humour and their eccentricities, their enthusiasm for words in several languages, their loves and their tragedies and, with the exception of the delightful and redoubtable Deborah, now the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the sadnesses of their passing.

The sisters have been described as "eccentric" and "maddening." Having read and enjoyed every one of their letters as published in this splendid work, I would be inclined to suggest that they were no more eccentric or maddening than the members of many families. But I suppose that their relatively privileged upbringing, their inclination to express themselves with confidence from an early age, their having the time to write so much - both letters and books - and the extraordinary array of celebrities with whom they mixed, all must have been major factors in how and why their lives were so "inter-esting" (or eccentric or maddening).

What were my conclusions? Well, first, I would have loved to have met any one of the ladies, though I would probably have become tongue-tied had a meeting happened. Second, my 'favourite' Mitfords are definitely Diana and Deborah, the former loyal to her late husband (Sir Oswald Mosley) to the last, and the latter clearly the most consistently loving and loved. And third, though it is often said and written that we shall never see such a correspondence again, I suggest that, even with Emails, provided they are filed, it is possible for our electronic means of communication to be preserved for future generations. I have done this with a distant relative and a pleasant (and private) little book is the result.

Finally, I wish to make it clear that I have no 'axe to grind' in praising "Mitfords": I am not and have not been related to or friendly with any of them and am merely reporting my opinion to a wider audience that this book is absolutely magnificent. Buy it now!
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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 20th Century Blue-bloods, 21 Oct 2007
By Donald Mackay "donaldmackay" (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (Hardcover)
It's hard to imagine that there will ever be another book quite like this one; partly because of the death of letter-writing but mainly because it is hard to conceive of six astonishing characters as the Mitford sisters in one family - one sister a communist, another a duchess, yet another a bestselling novelist, yet another had Hitler as a wedding guest.

At times laugh-out-loud funny, at others incredibly moving; this is a compelling read and the range of the letters mirrors the diversity of the sisters' lives. The dramatis personae alone justifies the admission price - from Elsa Schiaparelli to Stella Tennant; Goebbels to JFK; Evelyn Waugh to Jon Snow; Winston Churchill to Lucian Freud; this book is an alternative history of the 20th Century.

If this book were a novel, it would fly of the shelves: beautiful writing, excellent jokes as well as tragedies dramatic and mundane, shaped into a compelling narrative by a very skilful editor. I can't recommend this highly enough even for those who think they already "know" the Mitford story.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read, 3 Jan 2008
This review is from: Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (Hardcover)
Having read and adored a number of Mitford biographies and a number of the books written by the sisters themselves I was truly excited to receive this at Christmas.

I loved every word of this book - Charlotte Mosley's erudite and fair narration and moreover the words of the sisters.

It certainly gives one pause for thought about Hitler, and or course about Diana and Oswald Mosley.

I would recommend this to anyone who has sisters, anyone who has an interest in the history of the 20th century - (if just to see how an inordinate number of different characters from the twenteith century link up from Betjeman to Hitler to Lucian Freud to Cecil Beaton to Churchill) and indeed to anyone interested in understanding human relationships.

My favourite Mitford character without a doubt is the mis-understood Muv - what incredible unfaltering loyalty. A true inspiration.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars You will get eye strain
I love the novels of Nancy Mitford and have also enjoyed her non-fiction work. I was selecting a copy of The Pursuit of Love for a friend's birthday and a lady in the queue behind... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley

2.0 out of 5 stars Utter dullth
In one of the later letters in this overblown book, one sister (Diana?) apologises to the recipient for the 'utter dullth' of the letter. Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. J. Whitford

2.0 out of 5 stars Letters between six sisters
I purchased this book because after reading various reviews and liking biographies I wanted to read it. Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars Beware the Mitford 'Bug'
I read this book over Christmas in South Africa: on the beach, by the pool, on safari...it is complusive reading and I had to fend off my own sister who was dying to get her hands... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Flemfreckle

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book of 2008
`The Mitford's - Letters Between Six Sisters' is an amazing book, a collection of the famous sisters letters to each other over 80 years, edited by Diana Mitford's daughter in law... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Simon Savidge "savidgeread...

4.0 out of 5 stars Really good read
I am really interested in the Mitford Sisters so I have been really looking forward to getting this book. It was much bigger than I expected but was very enjoyable. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Dot

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting revelations
These letters certainly open a window on the true characters of the six Mitford sisters (perhaps less so on Unity, because her life basically ended in 1939). Read more
Published 12 months ago by SusieQ

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and very enjoyable read
I knew nothing about the Mitfords before borrowing this book from my mum. I found it highly compelling, especially all the references to the many influential and varied people of... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Carrie

5.0 out of 5 stars A big adventure from start to finish!!
This book is a truly wonderful read and I would totally recommend it. I didn't know much about the Mitfords before I read the book, but afterwards I was desperate to find out... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Michelle Wright

3.0 out of 5 stars A truly mixed bag
This is a difficult book to review. The editing is very well done. The layout it clear and the letters' contents are usually well annotated (though I wish this had been more... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Amsterdamned

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