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The Mitford Girls' Guide to Life
A look at how the perennially popular Mitford girls would cope with modern life, with rare and unpublished images courtesy of the Mary Evans Picture Library, and extracts from archived interviews previously unused
Nancy Mitford was the ultimate tease, and her talent for mockery reformed the publishing industry in the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, the Mitford girls' popularity provoked Jessica to label it "The Mitford Industry." All six sisters were blessed with beauty, wit, and talent, and although they were each individual they exploited these attributes to the best of their abilities, and serious matters were not excluded from mockery. Laughter was their key to getting through difficult times, and their life experiences, although sometimes maddening, are a lesson to all. So how would the Mitford girls cope with the pressures and turmoil of modern life? Whether it is Pamela's guide to throwing a jubilee party, the Mitford guide to shopping, or Diana's tips on how to stay young, this quirky and fact-filled book answers that question and many more.
Nancy Mitford was the ultimate tease, and her talent for mockery reformed the publishing industry in the 1930s and 1940s. Indeed, the Mitford girls' popularity provoked Jessica to label it "The Mitford Industry." All six sisters were blessed with beauty, wit, and talent, and although they were each individual they exploited these attributes to the best of their abilities, and serious matters were not excluded from mockery. Laughter was their key to getting through difficult times, and their life experiences, although sometimes maddening, are a lesson to all. So how would the Mitford girls cope with the pressures and turmoil of modern life? Whether it is Pamela's guide to throwing a jubilee party, the Mitford guide to shopping, or Diana's tips on how to stay young, this quirky and fact-filled book answers that question and many more.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2013
12 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Lyndsy Spence
20 books47 followersWelcome to my Goodreads profile!
I am the author of The Mitford Girls' Guide to Life (The History Press, 2013); Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford (The History Press, 2015); Margaret Lockwood: Queen of the Silver Screen (Fantom Films, 2016); The Mistress of Mayfair: Men, Money and the Marriage of Doris Delevingne (The History Press, 2016). I also edit and produce The Mitford Society annual.
Aside from writing books, I have dabbled in screenwriting. In 2012 I co-wrote The Flower Girl, a short film directed by Emmy Award winner Nick Nanton and shot on location in L.A. My biopic of Vivien Leigh is in development with Ariana Entertainment, and I am currently developing and co-writing a television series based during WWI.
I have written for mainstream newspapers and magazines including Social & Personal, The Lady, Vintage Life, and BBC News Magazine. I also review books for The Lady.
I am the author of The Mitford Girls' Guide to Life (The History Press, 2013); Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford (The History Press, 2015); Margaret Lockwood: Queen of the Silver Screen (Fantom Films, 2016); The Mistress of Mayfair: Men, Money and the Marriage of Doris Delevingne (The History Press, 2016). I also edit and produce The Mitford Society annual.
Aside from writing books, I have dabbled in screenwriting. In 2012 I co-wrote The Flower Girl, a short film directed by Emmy Award winner Nick Nanton and shot on location in L.A. My biopic of Vivien Leigh is in development with Ariana Entertainment, and I am currently developing and co-writing a television series based during WWI.
I have written for mainstream newspapers and magazines including Social & Personal, The Lady, Vintage Life, and BBC News Magazine. I also review books for The Lady.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 20, 2014
I enjoyed this book, but found it disjointed and slightly hare-brained. Some parts were written in an excellent attempt at trying to make a 'Live like a Mitford Girl' guide to life, but then reverts to plain biography. What kept it going was the obvious charisma & charm of the Mitfords. Such varied and colourful lives, heaped with vibrancy, hilarity and tragedy.
I am now a convert to Jessica Mitford being the best. Could be her socialism and outlook on life. Maybe the fact that she out-and-out blasts her family and the English for being racist and anti-semitic. Maybe just because she's brilliant.
I am now a convert to Jessica Mitford being the best. Could be her socialism and outlook on life. Maybe the fact that she out-and-out blasts her family and the English for being racist and anti-semitic. Maybe just because she's brilliant.
December 30, 2014
Maybe if I knew who the Mitford girls were in advance and had studied their lives, this would have been interesting. I'd never heard of them, still don't really understand what made them famous, and just found this book jumpy and repetitive.
not-finishing
October 6, 2021I gave this a try expecting it to be delightfully frothy, but it was frothy without much delight and alas it had far too much Diana apologia in it for my liking. Spence would have it that Diana was interned during WW2 'because she was friends with Hitler' and wants the reader to understand how terribly wrong and unfair that is, while ignoring the fact that Diana's husband was the leader of an anti-semitic, far-right fascist movement that wanted England to be allied with Nazi Germany. Did the Mosleys really need to be interned to protect Great Britain? I have no idea, but pretending that the only reason it happened was that Nancy was mean to her sister who was being a lovely human by loyalty to her good friend Hitler even if he didn't deserve it... well!
The other problem I had with this book is that clearly Spence didn't have a competent copy-editor -- for instance:
“As any U person knows, there is no shame in being a spendthrift. It is the careless and nouvelle riche who lavishly throw their money around.”
Spendthrift doesn't mean what she thinks it does, here -- it doesn't mean you save your money wisely, it means you, well, lavishly throw it about -- much like Nancy Mitford in the 1920s, say, when she's always writing her brother Tom letters talking about how she had so little money she had to borrow to get home from a nightclub.
It's a pity, because the premise of the book was so charming, but so it goes. [Aug 2021]
The other problem I had with this book is that clearly Spence didn't have a competent copy-editor -- for instance:
“As any U person knows, there is no shame in being a spendthrift. It is the careless and nouvelle riche who lavishly throw their money around.”
Spendthrift doesn't mean what she thinks it does, here -- it doesn't mean you save your money wisely, it means you, well, lavishly throw it about -- much like Nancy Mitford in the 1920s, say, when she's always writing her brother Tom letters talking about how she had so little money she had to borrow to get home from a nightclub.
It's a pity, because the premise of the book was so charming, but so it goes. [Aug 2021]
February 2, 2023
It's as funny as you might hope from a book about, but not by a Mitford. Pretty fun if you're a fan of these zaftig girls. Spence almost makes a good laugh from Unity's and Diana's Nazism. Feeling so sorry for myself, three days waylaid by the Covid booster, this really helped lift my pitiful spirits. Graham Greene-level insult for the girls' boyfriends, per their Dad, Farve: Sewer!
May 27, 2021
Disappointed in this. Horrible format.
June 25, 2022
What a strange eccentric group of six sisters including a fascist, a friend of Hitler, a Communist, two writers, and a countess. Between their most unconventional parents and a complete lack of basic education, their lack of critical thinking is hardly surprising.
This is a nonfiction book about a family of aristocrats who had lost all their money so did not bother to educate their daughters. (The only son was killed in WWII.) It is an interesting portrait of British upper class life in the early 20th century when the best a woman could hope for in life was to marry well. Related to the royal family and having titles but no wealth, the Mitfords all still expected to live a certain way and maintain certain privileges. The book is interesting for those who want to understand the history of the period and the social structure of those times.
The text is taken from letters, interviews, and the published and unpublished writings of the Mitford themselves. Funny and sad, I felt that the material could have been organized a bit better (for example it would have been helpful to have the biographical information in the front of the book) and a little more context would have been helpful.
If you are interested in Nancy or Jessica Mitford this book provides invaluable information about their whole diverse and fascinating family. It took me a long time to read because there was little cohesion between the sections so it was easy to put down while reading something else more compelling.
This is a nonfiction book about a family of aristocrats who had lost all their money so did not bother to educate their daughters. (The only son was killed in WWII.) It is an interesting portrait of British upper class life in the early 20th century when the best a woman could hope for in life was to marry well. Related to the royal family and having titles but no wealth, the Mitfords all still expected to live a certain way and maintain certain privileges. The book is interesting for those who want to understand the history of the period and the social structure of those times.
The text is taken from letters, interviews, and the published and unpublished writings of the Mitford themselves. Funny and sad, I felt that the material could have been organized a bit better (for example it would have been helpful to have the biographical information in the front of the book) and a little more context would have been helpful.
If you are interested in Nancy or Jessica Mitford this book provides invaluable information about their whole diverse and fascinating family. It took me a long time to read because there was little cohesion between the sections so it was easy to put down while reading something else more compelling.
April 24, 2016
As a fan of the Mitford sisters, I was very much looking forward to reading this book. Sadly, I was extremely disappointed in this book. Frankly, anyone who chooses to read this book has probably already read a few other books about the Mitford sisters. If you choose to read this book, I could suggest more 10 other books. The words written in this book are nothing new and really this book becomes repetitive towards the end. There are key passages that are stripped from the personal recollections of villagers who came in contact with Pamela or Diana or Jessica that lose their impact when you've already read them through bullet points earlier on in the book. The personal recollections are in great need of an editor as well as they tend to meander around the point as if Spence was too nice to cut what a very nice elderly woman told them as a bit of a bit of Mitford gossip. An editor would have also helped with the numerous misspellings I found. I wanted to really enjoy this book, and it just made me upset that the allure of the Mitfords had resulted in this pathetic excuse for a book. If it had been merely a series of blog postings I could have enjoyed it.
May 18, 2015
Any dilemma one can think of today probably can be answered to our own satisfaction by simply asking: What would the Mitford Girls do? Lyndsy Spence's new biography, "The Mitford Girls' Guide to Life" is a cheeky tale about six of the most beautifully quirky, extravagant, witty women ever to have walked from the English countryside into the imaginations of the rest of the world. I couldn't put it down until I'd satisfied myself about what these outrageous icons would do next.
July 1, 2018
I'm interested in the family and the period between the 2 world wars. This is an amusing addition to the family but I'm not sure it adds much.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews