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Post by Admin on Oct 7, 2014 21:49:37 GMT
Between 1904 and 1920, Lord and Lady Redesdale produced a son, Tom, and six daughters – Nancy, the novelist and Francophile; Pam, a horsewoman, farmer and cook; Diana, a fascist beauty; Unity, a besotted Nazi; Jessica (“Decca”), an American communist and writer; and Deborah (“Debo”), the Duchess of Devonshire. They were six variations of the same face and voice with an obsessive dedication to a person or cause. Nancy’s love for Gaston Palewski, Unity’s for Hitler and Diana’s for the English fascist Oswald Mosley, blighted their lives – although none of them would ever admit it. Jessica’s dedication to communism and Deborah’s to her home, Chatsworth House, were just as strong but cast no shadows. Four of the sisters – Nancy, Diana, Jessica and Deborah – took to print. Memoirs from the last three of them (and more than 40 books among them); novels and historical biographies from Nancy; biographies and reviews from Diana; and exposés from Jessica, the Queen of Muckrakers. Three volumes of Nancy’s letters have been published (one, her correspondence with Evelyn Waugh), 700 pages of letters from Jessica, and Deborah’s 54 years of brilliant badinage with the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, In Tearing Haste. There are also the 843 pages of correspondence between all six sisters, covering 77 years. Why the fascination? The lives of the Mitford sisters have riveted, and repelled, Anglophiles, romantics and readers since the 1930s. Diana Mitford once wrote, “I must admit ‘the Mitfords’ would madden ME if I didn’t chance to be one.” Their hold on the public imagination, through their loves and marriages, their politics and opinions, their friendships and sense of fun, can be attributed to a mixture of aristocratic eccentricity, romance, rebellion, devotion, betrayal, estrangement, tragedy and loss; and through it all, a uniquely irrepressible wit. This absolute self-possession and determination to treat the gravest aspects of life as a lark are what make the Mitfords such an enduring study. The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2008), superbly edited by Diana’s daughter-in-law, Charlotte Mosley, presents the sisters at their vivid best, bouncing off each other, revealing a distinctive, instantly recognisable style that shines through each one’s letters. The lives of the Mitford girls seem as remote today as the Bennett sisters. The latter were fictional and the Mitfords have become so, too. It is almost impossible for many to separate the family from their fictional equivalents. The books that made them so, and grew into what Jessica dubbed the Mitford Industry, were Nancy’s The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love in a Cold Climate (1949), which become classics, still in print today, creating cult figures of her already notorious family. The intensely autobiographical nature of Nancy’s fiction might suggest a lack of creative imagination, but the real-life models she was so brilliantly able to draw on – with some, but not much, embellishment – made it all the more fascinating for appearing to be true. Published in December 1945, The Pursuit of Love, a hilarious, high-spirited and sweepingly romantic tale came at just the right time to a country exhausted and numb after six years of war. That spirit and the ingredients of love, childhood and the eccentricities of the English aristocracy in the guise of the Radlett family make it still so eminently readable today. Nancy trumped her success with Love in a Cold Climate four years later, again drawing on life with the Radletts, but focusing on their neighbours. Half a century passed between Nancy’s first novel, Highland Fling (1931), and Debo’s first book. Eldest green-eyed Nancy never recovered from not being an only child and was relentless in her teasing. She called Debo “Nine” – her apparent mental age – and claimed she had to point to the words on a page to read. Debo played on this, claiming never to read; rather like Favre (as they called their father), who apparently only ever read one book, White Fang, which he found so good there was no need to read another. Writing about Chatsworth was the most natural thing in the world for Deborah and so it read. She listed her occupation in Who’s Who as “housewife” and would refer to Chatsworth as “the dump”. As Alan Bennett said in his introduction to the second collection of her journalism, Home to Roost ... And Other Peckings (2009), a bestseller like her predecessor, “Deborah Devonshire is not someone to whom one can say ‘joking apart ...’: with her it’s of the essence, even at the most serious and saddest of moments.” And in a long life, she had her tragedies and her trials. She lost three children at birth and like many a duke, her husband had affairs. He was also an alcoholic and a gambler but gave these up so their last two decades were warm and companionable. “Happiness is very rare and totally overrated,” Deborah would say. “Contentment is completely different and Chatsworth has made me content ... I am the most easily pleased of the sisters.” By December 2005, sisterless and widowed (her last sister, Diana, died in 2003 and the Duke the following year), Debo left Chatsworth to her son, the 12th duke, and his wife, moving nearby to the Old Vicarage at Edensor. She called it the Old Vic and soon made it her own. She continued to contribute to The Spectator as a columnist and reviewer. Her views were sturdily conservative – Crown and countryside, the social order and stiff upper lip, good manners, loyalty and friendship, but always expressed with originality and humour. Then, at the age of 90 and by then almost blind, she published her memoirs, Wait for Me!, perhaps the most reliable and rational account of life as a Mitford sister, recalling the stumpy-legged infant trying to catch up to her five big sisters. Indifferent to their politics, her love for her sisters was unwavering. Debo had been the Redesdales’ last chance for another son. Mabel the parlourmaid recalled, “I knew it was a girl by the look on his lordship’s face.” Yet, unlike her tearaway sisters she loved life at home with Muv and Favre and became her father’s favourite. Apart from preserving Chatsworth and protecting the legacy of her sisters, the Duchess of Devonshire championed, through her writing and her patronages, traditional values and the importance of country life; proving in the end, to be the grandest and most remarkable of that remarkable brood.
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Post by Admin on Apr 27, 2015 5:48:18 GMT
The Conservatives are trying to win over fans of 20th century history by warning that an Labour/SNP pact after May 7 would be the worst constitutional crisis since the abdication crisis when Edward VIII gave up the throne in 1936. Theresa May said it would raise "questions of legitimacy" for a Labour government to only be able to hold power with backing from the Scottish Nationalists and be the biggest crisis in 79 years, prompting some to point out more recent crises facing Britain that may have been bigger. May was not the only politician talking up the constitutional threat of the SNP, with former prime minister Gordon Brown saying the party wanted "chaos and constitutional crisis". May told the Mail on Sunday: "It would mean Scottish MPs who have no responsibility for issues like health, education and policing in their own constituencies making decisions on those issues for England and Wales. "Rightly, people in England would say 'hang on a minute, why are Scottish nationalist MPs allowed to do that?' "There would be a very real feeling this was something people did not want to see, had not voted for and would find difficult to accept. It would raise difficult questions about legitimacy. A lot of English people would question that." Columnist and historian Tim Stanley, an English person, did not appear to question "that". By questioning the 'legitimacy' of a Miliband Government backed by Sturgeon, Mrs May has raised the stakes in the row over the prospect of Labour teaming up with the SNP to rule the UK. She believes that English voters would not accept Sturgeon's party having vital power over their lives. The Conservatives believe that fear of a Labour-SNP alliance could persuade floating voters to switch to the Tories and keep Miliband out of Downing Street. Mrs May told The Mail on Sunday: 'If we saw a Labour Government propped up by SNP it could be the biggest constitutional crisis since the abdication. 'It would mean Scottish MPs who have no responsibility for issues like health, education and policing in their own constituencies [as they are devolved to the Scottish Parliament] making decisions on those issues for England and Wales. 'Rightly, people in England would say, "hang on a minute why are Scottish Nationalist MPs allowed to do that?"' Mrs May's comments were underlined by a new poll which showed voters believe Miliband would be Sturgeon's puppet under any coalition deal.
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Post by Admin on Jul 20, 2015 2:39:51 GMT
Buckingham Palace may have accidentally released the footage from 1933 that shows the Queen as a child performing a Nazi salute with her family. The 17-second black and white film was published by The Sun newspaper on Friday and shows the Queen, then aged around seven, with her arm raised in the air mimicking the gesture made famous by Adolf Hitler. The edited clip from 1933 showing Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret was allegedly used in an exhibition at the Palace last year and may have been inadvertently released to a documentary maker after a flurry of requests for the unseen royal home movies, according to the Daily Telegraph. Buckingham Palace, which has launched an inquiry into how the film reached The Sun, is considering taking legal action over the footage. A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said: "There is an inquiry going on to find the source of the footage and until that inquiry is completed we would not give out any further information."
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2015 2:12:57 GMT
Buckingham Palace said last night said the seven-year-old Queen was simply 'playing' with her family in the archive video. 'It is disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago and apparently from her Majesty's personal family archive, has been obtained and exploited in this manner,' a spokesman said. A Palace source added: 'Most people will see these pictures in their proper context and time. This is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen from contemporary news reels,. No one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest. The Queen is around six years of age at the time and entirely innocent of attaching any meaning to these gestures. The Queen and her family's service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years The Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself.' The clip, released by The Sun last night, shows the Queen Mother also saluting proudly alongside Princess Margaret, aged three. They are encouraged by Edward VIII, who is known to have harboured Nazi sympathies. The grainy black-and-white photograph was taken just as Hitler was rising to power in Germany, seven years before the outbreak of the Second World War and before the atrocities of the Third Reich terrorised Europe. At the age of seven, the Queen is unlikely to have understood the full the implications of making a Nazi salute. Royal commentator and the Queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter said there would be great interest in royal circles in finding out how the footage - from the monarch's private archives - was made public. He told Sky News: 'I would like to think it was released inadvertently as a bit of harmless 1933 footage without anybody really knowing what was on it. 'I think what they (Buckingham Palace) would probably like to know is where it came from and who gave it to The Sun.' The Palace is expected to look into whether a crime has been committed in the leaking of the film, which belongs to the royal family. Rupert Murdoch, head of News UK that owns The Sun, is well known for his anti-Monarchy stances - with Saturday's outrageous front page only the latest example of their bias. Australian Murdoch has a dislike for the British establishment, wrote the left-leaning Guardian newspaper in 2014, quoting one insider saying: 'He admires the Queen, but in his heart he's a republican, he'd like to be left wing,' Murdoch has described the British Royal family as 'irrelevant'. and as a stauch Republican urged that his homeland of Australia abandon the monarchy. And despite commentators bemoaning the wealth of the Royal family, his amassed wealth from his media empire is much higher - worth a whopping $77billion, according to this year's Forbes Rich List.
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Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2015 9:40:30 GMT
A new video featuring the wedding of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip has been released. The historic footage, which was filmed in 1947, shows the best moments from the reigning monarch's big day – including the iconic moment that she and Philip greeted crowds from the palace balcony as newlyweds. The couple, who started to exchange love letters when Elizabeth was a young teenager, had known each other for years, and married on 20 November at Westminster Abbey – the same venue where Prince William and Kate wed in 2011. The black-and-white video shows the Queen, who was then Princess Elizabeth, wearing her beautiful soft white satin gown. The dress was designed by Britain's Norman Hartnell, who was known for his work with the royal family. Joining the married couple were King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth, who later became the Queen Mother, and the bride's younger sister Princess Margaret, who was a bridesmaid.
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