The Six, gives an account of the lives of the infamous Mitford Sisters. From an English aristocratic family, the Mitfords can trace their ancestors back as far as Edward the Confessor (d.1066) and a daughter of Sir John de Mitford married a William the Conqueror Norman knight.
The six sisters and their brother, Tom, led a fantasy childhood growing up with little supervision on a country estate. As they grew older their pursuits and ideas changed dramatically.
Nancy became a novelist - The Pursuit of Love is said to be more anecdotal than fiction.
Pamela - Was loved by British poet laureate John Betjaman and married Derek Jackson, residing in a castle.
Diana - Married Bryan Guinness , part of the Guinness brewing fortune, then had an affair and became the mistress of Oswald Mosley - founder of the British Union of Fascists. When Mosley and Diana married in 1933 at the home of Joseph Goebbels - Hitler was one of the guests of honor. Both she and her husband were jailed in England but released shortly after the war ended.
Unity - She was born in Swastica, Canada with a middle name Valkyrie (her family were friends with Richard Wagner). She Idolized Hitler and moved to Munich to become friends with him. When Britain declared war on Germany she was torn between her love of England and Germany and shot herself in the head. She survived but with brain damage.
Jessica - Duchess of Devonshire - She eloped to Spain with her second cousin, Esmond Romilly and then moved to America. Her husband went missing in action during WWII. She became a member of the American Communist Party with her second husband Robert Treuhaft, and she also became an investigative journalist.
Deborah - Married Andrew Cavendish, the 11th Earl of Devonshire and restored Chatsworth House. She wrote several books about the house.
I found The Six a little difficult to keep up with as it skips around from sister to sister, and numerous acquaintances and family members and also moves through different periods. But I don't know how their lives could be adequately written about as they are so intertwined and affected by the people they meet or are related to.
