The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family (73 page)

7
Newspaper articles of the day named him as Edward Warburton.

8
Private letter to the author; Mr Allen is an old friend of the author’s.

9
Evening Standard
, 12 April 1937.

10
The Times
, 2 June 1937, p. 14;
Daily Mirror
, 2 June 1937, pp. 1–2.

11
Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine,
The House of Mitford
(Hutchinson, 1984), p. 412.

12
Quoted in full in David Pryce-Jones,
Unity Mitford
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), p. 187. FO/371/21581.

13
DM to the author, January 2001.

14
The House of Mitford
, p. 421.

15
Ibid
., p. 417.

16
Ibid
., p. 416.

17
Unity Mitford, p. 196.

18
The House of Mitford
, p. 417.

19
Cowles, Virginia,
Looking for Trouble
(Hamish Hamilton, 1941), p. 154.

20
Ibid
.

21
Butler, Lucy (ed.),
Letters Home
(John Murray, 1991), p. 291.

22
Unity did spend Christmas in England. On 15 December a gossip column reported her sitting with her mother, nibbling at a plate of sausages on her lap (Sydney had clearly given up insisting that Unity stuck to Mosaic dietary law), at an Anglo-German Fellowship Christmas party in Bloomsbury.

23
The House of Mitford
, p. 371.

24
Typescript at OSU; partially published in
Forum
(undated).

25
Attallah, Naim,
More of a Certain Age
(Quartet Books, 1993), pp. 50–1.

26
The House of Mitford
, p. 385.

27
Mosley, Diana,
A Life of Contrasts
(Hamish Hamilton, 1977), p. 146.

28
The House of Mitford
, p. 383.

29
Mosley, Nicholas,
Beyond the Pale
(Secker & Warburg, 1983), p. 410.

30
Ravensdale, Irene,
In Many Rhythms
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1953), p. 146.

31
Ibid
.

32
Hastings, Selina,
Nancy Mitford
(Hamish Hamilton, 1985), p. 115.

33
Nancy also told friends that the ‘wicked nanny’ had suffered from syphilis and that it may have been passed to her, causing her inability to carry a child. This seems extremely unlikely.

34
OSU, Dr William K. Wallerstein, 5 December 1980.

35
Hons and Rebels
, p. 152.

36
Toynbee, Philip,
Friends Apart
(MacGibbon & Kee, 1954), p. 122.

37
OSU/1711, Seldon Rodman to JM (undated).

38
Friends Apart
, p. 154. It seems likely that it was at this point, when things looked very black for the couple, that Decca had her abortion.

39
Ibid
., p. 152.

Chapter 13: No Laughing Matter, 1939

1
NY Daily Mirror
, ‘Only Human’, 21 April 1937.

2
Ibid
.

3
Ibid
., 20 April 1937.

4
Mitford, Jessica,
Hons and Rebels
(Victor Gollancz, 1960), pp. 209 and 219–20.

5
Daily Mirror
, 18 March 1937, p. 17.

6
Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine,
The House of Mitford
(Hutchinson, 1984), p. 423.

7
Ibid
.

8
Pryce-Jones, David,
Unity Mitford
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976), p. 218.

9
The House of Mitford
, p. 424. Refers to Adolf Wagner, Gauleiter of Munich. Schwabing is a student and artist district in Munich.

10
Unity Mitford, p. 149. Interview with Lady Gainer, widow of the British consul to Munich in 1936. Of the Jews taken to the island on the Danube, Unity told her, ‘That’s the way to treat them. I wish we could do that in England to our Jews.’

11
DM, interview with the author, Paris, January 2000.

12
The Times
, 29 May 1940, p. 9.

13
Mosley, Diana,
A Life of Contrasts
(Hamish Hamilton, 1977), p. 160.

14
Trevor-Roper, Hugh (ed.),
Hitler's Table Talk
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1953), p. 631. This conversation took place on the evening of 16 August 1942.

15
DM to the author, 11 November 2000.

16
DM to the author regarding the Hitler photograph, 6 February 2001: ‘I still have the receipt (dated June 1940) but I never asked them about it after the war because I assumed the Home Office had probably stolen it. All our bank accounts were examined, and our safe at home forced open. Many things disappeared and our solicitor got apologies, but no more, from the Home Office people . . . One thing they stole was our marriage certificate . . . I had great trouble getting a copy from the ruins of Berlin.’

17
The House of Mitford
. p. 426.

18
Ibid
., p. 427.

19
CHP, JM to SR, 23 August 1939.

20
DM to the author, January 2001.

21
OSU/1651, PM to JM, 30 September 1937.

22
NM to SR, 25 May 1939, in Mosley, Charlotte,
Love from Nancy
(Hodder & Stoughton, 1993), p. 113.

23
Ibid
.

24
Ibid
.

25
OSU/1651, PM to JM, 19 February 1978.

26
Love from Nancy
, p. 120.

27
Unity Mitford, p. 230.

28
The House of Mitford
, p. 428.

29
Unity Mitford, p. 235.

30
Radio Times
, 11 April 1981, letter from Mr H.W. Koch of York, quoted in
The House of Mitford
, p. 432.

31
It was the younger of the two Koch brothers who wrote the letter to the
Radio Times
.

32
The House of Mitford
, p. 434.

33
Unity Mitford, p. 236.

34
And, of course, Eva Braun would eventually die with Hitler in a suicide pact.

35
Unity Mitford, p. 231.

36
NM to Violet Hammersley, 15 September 1939, in
Love from Nancy
, p. 116.

37
OSU/1697, SR to JM, 29 October 1939.

38
NM to Violet Hammersley, 30 October 1939 in
Love from Nancy
, p. 123.

39
Ibid
. Also OSU/1651, PM to JM, 30 September 1939.

40
Mitford, Jessica,
Hons and Rebels
(Victor Gollancz, 1960), pp. 196–202.

41
OSU/1679, Blor to JM, 10 December 1939.

42
OSU/1697, SR to JM, 8 December 1939.

Chapter 14: Irreconcilable Differences, 1940–41

1
DD, interview with the author, Chatsworth, 4 May 2000.

2
Mosley, Diana,
A Life of Contrasts
(Hamish Hamilton, 1977), p. 165.

3
Interview at Chatsworth, June 2000.

4
Not Unity’s diaries. Janos kept these safely and later sent them to Lady Redesdale.

5
Guinness, Jonathan and Catherine,
The House of Mitford
(Hutchinson, 1984), p. 436.

6
OSU/1697, SR to JM, 28 January 1940: ‘I see that doctors today have given up on pills and potions and taken to great mysterious engines, electrical and otherwise. This clinic is full of them and is more like the inside of a battleship than a hospital. She has had all sorts of electrical tests and X-rays. We are certainly living in a mechanical age.’

7
NM to Violet Hammersley, 7 January 1940, in Mosley, Charlotte,
Love from Nancy
(Hodder & Stoughton, 1993), p. 126.

8
The House of Mitford
, p. 438.

9
A Life of Contrasts
, p. 167.

10
NM to Violet Hammersley, 10 February 1940, in
Love from Nancy
, p. 130.

11
The House of Mitford
, pp. 439–40.

12
This quote appeared in English papers as ‘Unity was always a headstrong girl’. See OSU/1673, TM to JM, 18 January 1940.

13
CHP, JM, to SR, 26 February 1940.

14
OSU/1697, SR to JM, 1 April 1940.

15
The Times
, 9 March 1940, p. 4.

16
Unless otherwise stated, the information on Decca and Esmond’s experiences in the USA is taken from Mitford, Jessica,
Hons and Rebels
(Victor Gollancz, 1960). For the Miami period, see pp. 210–14.

17
OSU/1628, Kay Graham file, 13 April 1978.

18
OSU/1032, Nellie Romilly to JM, 8 July 1940.

19
Hons and Rebels
, p. 222.

20
Durr, Virginia Foster,
Outside the Magic Circle
(University of Alabama Press, 1990), p. 138.

21
OSU/1029, JM to ER, June 1940.

22
CHP, JM to DD, 17 November 1986.

23
OSU/1697, JM to SR, 22 July 1940.

24
OSU, Jessica Mitford Papers.

25
Ibid
.

26
Ibid
.