Her looks, charm and gaiety, enhanced by the setting of a close and vivid family life, had an irresistible appeal to this rather lonely boy. When Diana Mitford was only ten, her sixteen-year-old cousin Michael Bowles fell violently in love with her. Read moreĮxceptional beauty is an attribute which defines its possessor’s life. A worthwhile read for anyone with an interest in history and early twentieth century politics and with alarming resonances today. I enjoyed finding the parallels with Nancy Mitford's fictional characters but I found the politics, in particular her friendship with Hitler, and her anti-semitism profoundly uncomfortable, and a reminder that evil isn't only banal but can be actively charming.
Her early married life echoed that of Idina Sackville (The Bolter) who left her husband and two young sons for another man. Although the author talks of their great love for each other, reading between the lines it becomes obvious that this was a one sided obsession - with Mosely continuing the affairs for which he was notorious, and being extremely demanding to the devoted Diana (even resenting the time she spent at the deathbed of her sister Nancy).
I've had a long fascination with the Mitford sisters and Diana is very much a Mitford with all the charm and beauty of her class and family, but she was also obsessively dedicated to her fascist second husband Oswald Mosley. Written with Mosley's exclusive cooperation and based upon hundreds of hours of taped interviews and unprecedented access to her private papers, letters, and diaries, Lady Mosley's only stipulation was that the book not be published until after her death. It is a riveting tell-all memoir of a leading society hostess, a woman with intimate access to the highest literary, political, and social circles of her time. Diana's relationships with Hitler and Mosley defined her life in the public eye and marked her as a woman who possessed a singular lack of empathy for those less blessed at birth.Īnne de Courcy's revealing biography chronicles one of the most intriguing, controversial women of the twentieth century. During the war, the Mosleys' association with Hitler led them to be arrested and interned for three and a half years. They became close friends and he attended her wedding as the guest of honor. In 1933, Diana met the new German leader, Adolf Hitler. This horrified her family and scandalized society. Diana Mosley was a society beauty who fell from grace when she left her husband, brewery heir Bryan Guinness, for Sir Oswald Mosley, an admirer of Mussolini and a notorious womanizer.
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