Finished The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell, what a fascinating family. It's hard to believe that from a family of seven, one daughter was Hitler's girlfriend, one was married to Oswell Mosley( leader of the British Fascist Union), one was an ardent communist and civil rights activist and one had a long-running affair with a close associate of de Gaulle. This lead their mother to asking in exasperation, "Oh, why do all my daughters fall for dictators?'
My overall opinion is that they were a very intelligent family and several were very good writers, but although at times I felt sympathy for them, I couldn't particularly warm to them.
The person I felt the most sympathy for was Sydney, their mother. Most of her children seemed to have a chip on their shoulders about her, particularly because they were mostly home tutored and not allowed to attend school (father feared they would all end up playing hockey and developing fat calves). Despite that, several had very successful writing and business careers, so the education they received at home was certainly not deficient. They also accused her of being cold and detached, but she was the first to rush to their help when anything went wrong in their lives (which it frequently did) and didn't retaliate to most of the critisism they directed towards her, because she didn't want to lose touch with them. She had a lot to contend with in her life.... the attempted suicide of one daughter; divorces; the death of a son; her daughters association and adverse publicity about their friendship with Hitler; imprisonment of one daughter; and several estrangements. In later life, she and her husband largely lived apart due to their differing political opinions.
But I found it all thoroughly engrossing and for anyone who enjoys reading biographies, the Mitfords are an astonishing family.
I'm now going back to read Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. After reading their biography, you can see where so much of her writing material came from.