Diana Mosley: A biography of the glamorous Mitford sister who became Hitler's friend and married the leader of Britain's fascists

by Jan Dalley

Much has been written about and by the Mitford sisters, who variously dazzled and shocked their contemporaries in England and Nancy, as a celebrated novelist ( The Pursuit of Love ); Deborah, as Duchess of Devonshire; Unity, famously infatuated with Hitler; Jessica, as a young Communist, and then as the queen of muckrakers ( The American Way of Death ). But until now there has been no biography of one of the most extraordinary of them, the beautiful and ambitious Diana.

Married at eighteen into the enormously wealthy Guinness family, Diana had it all -- brains, beauty, social position and money. She bore two sons and created a sparkling society circle that included such artists and intellectuals of the interwar years as Cecil Beaton, Lytton Strachey and Evelyn Waugh (who dedicated Vile Bodies to her). But after only three years she was swept up in the love affair that would change her with Sir Oswald Mosley, MP, womanizer and charismatic founder of the British Union of Fascists.

Jan Dalley's careful and dedicated research -- which included many interviews and conversations with the subject herself, now nearly ninety and living in France -- enables her to tell Diana Mosley's story in fascinating, and sometimes grim, detail. Growing enthusiasm for the Nazis spurred frequent visits to Germany and meetings with Hitler and other leaders (the Mosleys were actually married in Goebbels's house in 1936); there were struggles to raise money for Mosley's organization and, finally, after war was declared, years of internment in Holloway prison. Yet at the same time there were friendships with people like Winston Churchill (whose affectionate nickname for her was "Dinamite") and, after the war, a comfortable, if controversial, return to respectability.

Hailed on publication in Britain last year as "a reflective, considered, intelligent," Diana Mosley brings an unforgettable figure to life, and at the same time throws a bright light onto an exceptionally dark episode of British social history.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, British Literature, History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 9, 2000

Reviews

[Mary Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another biography of this amazing woman. Very well told, though the book was written while she was alive. Further facts came to light after she died in 2003. One of the Mitford sisters, she was an anti-semite and unrepentant fascist. But the reason she was almost drummed out of society was that she was in love with a married man, Oswald Mosley. After she and Mosley finally married, they lived together as enemies of the British government in Holloway Prison during World War II.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining while being informative which usually means a hit. I enjoyed very nearly every page except for getting bogged down by the very concept of fascism. It is hard to believe an intelligent person could be sucked into this belief system, let alone champion it.

[Mary Byrnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay book. I'm not usually a reader of biographies, but I picked this after reading about Nancy Mitford. There was lots of interesting information but at times I struggled to get through it and still follow the story.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hesitated on the 4 stars. Not a book I would read again. But, having read the other Mitfords in my 20's I was interested to hear about this one, and her 2nd husband, Oswald Mosley, the leader of the Nazi party in Great Britain. The biographer, as she should, tries to emphasize the good points in Diana. I found Mosley a feudally-oriented, egotistical, anti-Semite, and none of Diana's attempts to clean up that image or to rail against the unfairness of her imprisonment in 1940 convinced me otherwise. Diana's main interest, always, was her fanatical devotion to first, Moseley, and 2nd, The Fuhrer. And her sister Unity is a major piece of work.
Diana puts up with all kinds of sexual shenanigans from Mosley, which did not increase my admiration for her.
Still, I devoured this book. How lovely it is to righteously hate someone. And I did enjoy it.

[Gillian Woodcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

No matter how hard the biographer tried, so much of the story is absolutely indefensible and leaves a bitter taste all these years later. Would there now be any apologists for Diana Mitford if she hadn't been born into the upper class?