The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters

A novelist would never get away with inventing this: a correspondence spanning eight decades, written from locations including Chatsworth and Holloway Prison, between six original and talented women who numbered among their friends Evelyn Waugh, Maya Angelou, J. F. Kennedy and Adolf Hitler. J. K. Rowling A glorious portrait of a six-way, life-enhancing, lifelong conversation. Sunday Times 'The Mitfords are all competitively exasperatingbut slowly, cumulatively, as age and death are stared gallantly in the eye, I ended in tears.' Guardian Absorbing, funny and often very movinga remarkable story of six remarkable personalities. Philip Hensher, Spectator Here, for the first time, are the six womens own voices booming out from the tomb and across the decadestelling their extraordinary stories, whichis also the story of the twentieth century, told from the front row. India Knight, Sunday Times Brilliantly entertainingand a profoundly moving experience. Sunday Telegraph 'An anthropologists treasureEvery sister, whether a professional writer or not, has an extraordinary natural talent for narrative: for observation, reflection, jokes, dialogue and description, and deploys it with unfailing energy.' The Times '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.' Daily Telegraph The roars and shrieks, the jokes and the teases bounce across every page of this hugely enjoyable book. Evening Standard The enduring fascination of this family comes not only from the larks and the society names but from the fact that the big currents of the twentieth century fascism and communism, wars and death washed through their lives. Financial Times Funny, sad, outrageous and impeccably editedit never flags for a moment. Mail on Sunday

Charlotte Mosley is Diana Mitfords daughter-in-law. She has worked as a publisher and journalist and was also the editor of A Talent to Annoy: Essays, Articles and Reviews by Nancy Mitford (1986), Love From Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford (1993) and The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh (1996).