Wonderful book about seven naughty siblings who flitted through London society in the 20s and 30s.
Heart-warming, charming, batty and scatty - until around about page 200. By which point...
1) Brother Tom Mitford appears to have had most of the girl's boyfriends and at least one husband. Now spends time with pretty blond SS men.
2) Nancy Mitford is hopelessly in love with a gay. He's thrown her off the scent by getting engaged to a lesbian. Idiot friend proposes to Nancy while drunk. Nancy accepts. Loveless marriage ensues. Nancy starts to write slightly hysterical comic novels.
3) Decca Mitford has eloped with Winston Churchill's communist activist cousin to fight in the Spanish Civl War.
4) Diana Mitford is secretly married to Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Fascist Party.
5) Young Unity Mitford has quite had her head turned by charming Adolf Hitler, is often at tea with darling Goebbels, and is writing rather sickening letters to the papers about the beastly "Jewish Problem". She's also started doing the Nazi salute in the village sweet shop.
Oh, how I miss the early pages which were all about eccentric nannies, practical jokes and pet snakes.
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