"collections are consistently inspired by and named after a Muse. They are: AW 01-02 'Minter' - Mary Miles Minter was an American silent film actress. She died in 1984. SS 2002 'Mildred' - is the character that Bette Davis played in the 1934 American film ""Of Human Bondage"". AW 02-03 'Emma' - is the English fashion designer Emma Cook. SS 2003 'Olga' - Olga Korbut was a Russian gymnast, famous for her 1972 OL-performance. AW 03-04 'Nancy' - Nancy Mitford was an English author, famous for her book ""The Pursuit of Love"" and being the eldest of the Mitford sisters."
"she had no training as a writer before publishing her first novel in 1931. This early effort and the three that followed it created little stir; it was her two semi-autobiographical postwar novels, ""The Pursuit of Love"" (1945) and ""Love in a Cold Climate"" (1949), that established her reputation. Mitford's marriage to Peter Rodd in 1933 proved unsatisfactory to both (they divorced in 1957 after a lengthy separation), and during the Second World War she formed a liaison with a Free French officer, Gaston Palewski. He became the love of her life, although the pair were never a formal couple."
"Park. The youngest of the Mitford sisters Deborah, later Duchess of Devonshire, was born at Asthall in 1920. Her sister Diana had an appendectomy on the spare-bedroom table. The Mitfords were great socialites, and Asthall hosted frequent hunting and shooting weekend parties, regular guests included Clementine Churchill, Frederick Lindemann and Walter Sickert. Nancy Mitford's fictional Alconleigh in ""The Pursuit of Love"" is based largely on Asthall, and family life there is described in Jessica Mitford's autobiographical ""Hons and Rebels"". Redesdale had never planned to make Asthall Manor a permanent home, and in 1926 the family moved into nearby Swinbrook House"
"""Hons and Rebels"". J. K. Rowling, author of the ""Harry Potter"" series, stated in 2002: Rowling reviewed Mitford's book of letters, ""Decca"", in the ""Sunday Telegraph"" in 2006. In 2013 the singer David Bowie named ""The American Way of Death"" as one of his favorite books. Jessica Mitford Jessica Lucy 'Decca' Freeman-Mitford (11 September 1917 – 22 July 1996) was an English author, journalist, civil rights activist and political campaigner, and was one of the Mitford sisters. Born at Asthall Manor, Mitford, the sixth of seven children, was the daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney"
"A Life of Contrasts A Life of Contrasts is the autobiography of Diana Mitford (sister of novelist Nancy Mitford, journalist Jessica Mitford, and memoirist Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire) that was first published by in 1977. In 2002 she released a revised edition of the book. In the autobiography, Mitford recounts her colourful past, including her marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists, her association with Nazi figures and her subsequent three-year internment under Defence Regulation 18B. She also recounts her friendships with leading literary figures Evelyn Waugh, Harold Acton, John Betjeman and Lytton Strachey. In"
"Pamela Mitford Pamela ""Pam"" Freeman-Mitford (25 November 1907 – 12 April 1994) was one of the Mitford Sisters. Pamela Freeman-Mitford was born on 25 November 1907, the second daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and Sydney Bowles (1880–1963). John Betjeman, who for a time was in love with her, referred to her in his unpublished poem, ""The Mitford Girls"", as the ""most rural of them all"", due to the fact she preferred to live quietly in the country. They met when she was managing Biddesden in Hampshire, the house of her brother-in-law, Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne. In 1936"
"Guinness. Loved Ones (book) Loved Ones is a 1985 collection of pen portraits by Diana Mitford. It was published by Sidgwick & Jackson. In 2008, three of the portraits were republished in the collection, ""The Pursuit of Laughter"". The book includes pen portraits of leading figures that featured prominently in Mitford's life. These include Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington, former neighbours and friends of hers. Violet Hammersley, an author, close friend of her mother's and prominent figure in childhood. The writer, Evelyn Waugh a close personal friend. Professor Derek Jackson, a leading physicist and her former brother-in-law. Lord Berners, a"
"the United States under the title Daughters and Rebels. Mitford and ""Hons and Rebels"" are cited by J.K. Rowling and Christopher Hitchens as great influences. Hons and Rebels Hons and Rebels is an autobiography by political activist Jessica Mitford, which describes her aristocratic childhood and the conflicts between her and her sisters Unity and Diana, who were ardent supporters of Nazism. Jessica was a supporter of Communism and eloped with her cousin, Esmond Romilly to fight with the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, and Diana grew up to marry Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of"
"Loved Ones (book) Loved Ones is a 1985 collection of pen portraits by Diana Mitford. It was published by Sidgwick & Jackson. In 2008, three of the portraits were republished in the collection, ""The Pursuit of Laughter"". The book includes pen portraits of leading figures that featured prominently in Mitford's life. These include Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington, former neighbours and friends of hers. Violet Hammersley, an author, close friend of her mother's and prominent figure in childhood. The writer, Evelyn Waugh a close personal friend. Professor Derek Jackson, a leading physicist and her former brother-in-law. Lord Berners, a close"
"Jessica Mitford Jessica Lucy 'Decca' Freeman-Mitford (11 September 1917 – 22 July 1996) was an English author, journalist, civil rights activist and political campaigner, and was one of the Mitford sisters. Born at Asthall Manor, Mitford, the sixth of seven children, was the daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney (daughter of politician and publisher Thomas Bowles), and grew up in a series of her father's country houses. She had little formal education, but nevertheless did a great deal of reading. Her sisters Unity and Diana were well-known members of the British Union of Fascists and"
"Munich, where she took a pearl-handled pistol given to her by Hitler for protection and shot herself in the head. She survived the suicide attempt, and was hospitalised in Munich, where Hitler frequently visited her. He paid her bills and arranged for her return home. In December 1939, Mitford was moved to a hospital in Bern in the neutral country of Switzerland, where her mother and youngest sister, Deborah, went to collect her. In a 2002 letter to ""The Guardian"", Deborah relates the experience: ""We were not prepared for what we found – the person lying in bed was desperately"
"found the love of her life in Fabrice and will not run off from any more husbands. Fanny is also expecting a baby, and she and Linda give birth to their sons on the same day. Linda dies in childbirth, as the doctors had warned; around this same time, Fabrice is killed in the war. Fanny and her husband adopt Linda's child and name him Fabrice. Mitford wrote two sequels to the novel, ""Love in a Cold Climate"" (1949) and ""Don't Tell Alfred"" (1960). Her penultimate novel, ""The Blessing"" (1951), also references ""The Pursuit of Love"" and characters from ""The"
"""The Horror of Love"" (2011) tells the story of famous English novelist and socialite Nancy Mitford's relationship with Gaston Palewski. In contrast to most biographers of Mitford, Hilton believes this relation is crucial to understanding Nancy. The ""Evening Standard"" found the style pedestrian but otherwise the book was ""well-paced and informative"". ""The Independent"" praised its charm in bringing Mitford's world to life. The ""Daily Express"" found it a good story, despite several minor errors. It was also reviewed by Kirkus Reviews. ""Wolves in Winter"" (2012) is a novel set in late 15th century Italy. The central character, Mura, is sold"
"July 1996), and Deborah (31 March 1920 – 24 September 2014), later the Duchess of Devonshire. The Mitford children lived at Asthall Manor in Asthall, Oxfordshire, and Unity was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey. Diana Mosley’s biographer, Jan Dalley, believes that, ""Unity found life in her big family very difficult because she came after these cleverer, prettier, more accomplished sisters."" While another biographer, David Pryce-Jones, added: ""If you come from a ruck of children in a large family, you've got to do something to assert your individuality, and I think through the experience of trying to force her way"
"was the talent for publicity."" Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford is 2006 collection of letters by Jessica Mitford. The book was edited by Peter Y. Sussman and the publisher is Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The book includes Mitford's letters between 1924 leading up to her death in 1996. It chronicles her escape from family life and elopement with Esmond Romilly. Following Romilly's premature death, the letters document her subsequent marriage to Robert Treuhaft and her activism in the Civil rights movement, the American Communist Party and her exposés of the American funeral industry. As"
"John Mitford John Mitford, also known as Jack Mitford (22 January 1782 – 24 December 1831), was a British naval officer, poet and journalist who is best remembered for his book ""The adventures of Johnny Newcome in the navy"". Mitford was born at Mitford, Northumberland. As one of the Mitfords of Mitford Castle he was a cousin to Admiral Robert Mitford the bird-artist and Philip Meadows Taylor (author of ""Confessions of a Thug""), and distantly related to Lord Redesdale (attorney general), William Mitford (historian), the Reverend John Mitford, and Mary Russell Mitford (author of ""Our Village""). The younger son of"
"Unity Mitford Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948) was a British socialite best known as a devotee of Adolf Hitler. Both in Great Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism, fascism and antisemitism, and belonged to Hitler's inner circle of friends. Following the declaration of World War II, Mitford attempted suicide in Munich, and was officially allowed safe passage back to England in her invalid condition, but never recovered. Unity was a member of the Mitford family, tracing its origins in Northumberland back to the 11th century Norman settlement of England. Her sister"
"Jessica became well-known writers: Nancy wrote ""The Pursuit of Love"" and ""Love in a Cold Climate"", and Jessica ""The American Way of Death"" (1963). Deborah managed one of the most successful stately homes in England, Chatsworth. Jessica and Deborah married nephews of prime ministers Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan, respectively. Deborah and Diana both married wealthy aristocrats. Unity and Diana were well-known during the 1930s for being close to Adolf Hitler. Jessica turned her back on her inherited privileges and ran away to become a communist. Jessica's memoir, ""Hons and Rebels"", describes their upbringing, and Nancy obviously drew upon her"
"supporter of the Shannon Trust, which runs the Toe by Toe Reading Plan and the Shannon Reading Plan in prisons across Britain, helping and giving tutoring to prisoners who cannot read. Rowling has named communist and civil rights activist Jessica Mitford as her ""most influential writer"" saying, ""Jessica Mitford has been my heroine since I was 14 years old, when I overheard my formidable great-aunt discussing how Mitford had run away at the age of 19 to fight with the Reds in the Spanish Civil War"", and claims what inspired her about Mitford was that she was ""incurably and instinctively"
"and his beliefs. After it was published in 1935 relations between the sisters became strained to non-existent and it was not until the mid-1940s that they were able to get back to being close again. The couple rented Wootton Lodge, a country house in Staffordshire which Diana had intended to buy. She furnished much of her new home with much of the Swinbrook furniture that her father was selling. The Mosleys lived at Wootton Lodge along with their children from 1936 to 1939. In 1934 Mitford went to Germany with her then 19-year-old sister Unity. While there, they attended the"
"Hons and Rebels Hons and Rebels is an autobiography by political activist Jessica Mitford, which describes her aristocratic childhood and the conflicts between her and her sisters Unity and Diana, who were ardent supporters of Nazism. Jessica was a supporter of Communism and eloped with her cousin, Esmond Romilly to fight with the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, and Diana grew up to marry Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. Unity befriended Nazi leader Hitler, who praised her as an ideal of Aryan beauty. Mitford recalls: ""In the windows, still to be seen, are"
"the London home during the Season of the Mitford family, who acquired the lease on the house for £28,000 after sale of Asthall Manor, their country house in Oxfordshire. The Mitfords were forced to give up Rutland Gate in the midst of the Great Depression, and it was initially rented from them by the Earl of Elgin, and subsequently by an American woman, a Mrs Warren Pearl. Deborah Devonshire (née Mitford) later recalled in her 2010 memoir ""Wait for Me!...Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister"" that her mother was annoyed by Pearl's ""painting everything, including the floors, green"". Jessica Mitford"
"struggle. (The title alludes to Stephen Potter's satirical series of books that included ""Lifemanship"".) Disillusioned by the revelations of Joseph Stalin's crimes against humanity in Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech, Mitford and Treuhaft resigned from the American Communist Party in 1958. In 1960 Mitford published her first book ""Hons and Rebels"" (US title: ""Daughters and Rebels""), a memoir covering her youth in the Mitford household. In May 1961 she traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, while working on an article about Southern attitudes for ""Esquire"". While there, she and a friend went to meet the arrival of the Freedom Riders and became"
"years in prison, she was afflicted by regular bouts of migraines. In 1981, she underwent a successful surgery to remove a brain tumour. She convalesced at Chatsworth House, the residence of her sister Deborah. In the early 1990s, she was also successfully treated for skin cancer. In later life she also suffered from deafness. Mitford attended the funeral of René de Chambrun, the son-in-law of Vichy France Prime Minister Pierre Laval, in 2002. Mosley was shunned in the British media for a period after the war and the couple established their own publishing company, Euphorion Books, named after a character"
"Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford is 2006 collection of letters by Jessica Mitford. The book was edited by Peter Y. Sussman and the publisher is Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The book includes Mitford's letters between 1924 leading up to her death in 1996. It chronicles her escape from family life and elopement with Esmond Romilly. Following Romilly's premature death, the letters document her subsequent marriage to Robert Treuhaft and her activism in the Civil rights movement, the American Communist Party and her exposés of the American funeral industry. As with her previous biography, ""Hons"
"Records store in San Francisco. She recorded two short albums: one contains her rendition of ""Maxwell's Silver Hammer"" and ""Grace Darling"", and the other, two duets with friend and poet Maya Angelou. Her last work was an update entitled ""The American Way of Death Revisited"". Mitford died of lung cancer aged 78. In keeping with her wishes, she had an inexpensive funeral, costing $533.31 – she was cremated without a ceremony, her ashes scattered at sea, the cremation itself costing $475. At the time of her death, the ""San Francisco Chronicle"" columnist Herb Caen wrote ""In this strangely flat era"
"Megan Marshall Megan Marshall (born June 8, 1954) is an American scholar, writer, and biographer. Her first biography ""The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism"" (2005) earned her a place as a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Her second biography ""Margaret Fuller: A New American Life"" (2013) is a richly detailed account of Margaret Fuller, the 19th-century author, journalist, and women’s rights advocate who perished in a shipwreck off New York’s Fire Island. It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Marshall was born in Oakland, California. Her mother was a"
"home by a series of governesses except for a six-month period in 1926 when she was sent to a day school in Paris. In childhood, her younger sisters Jessica Mitford (""Decca"") and Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (""Debo""), were particularly devoted to her. At the age of 18, shortly after her presentation at Court, she became secretly engaged to Bryan Walter Guinness. Guinness, an Irish aristocrat, writer and brewing heir, would inherit the barony of Moyne. Her parents were initially opposed to the engagement but in time were persuaded. Sydney was particularly uneasy at the thought of two such young"
"Award in nonfiction. Her biography of Margaret Fuller won the 2014 Pulitzer: http://www.pulitzer.org/files/2014/2014_LongList_PressRelease.pdf Megan Marshall Megan Marshall (born June 8, 1954) is an American scholar, writer, and biographer. Her first biography ""The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism"" (2005) earned her a place as a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Her second biography ""Margaret Fuller: A New American Life"" (2013) is a richly detailed account of Margaret Fuller, the 19th-century author, journalist, and women’s rights advocate who perished in a shipwreck off New York’s Fire Island. It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for"
"of their relationship, although it is moved from postwar to prewar Paris. Despite Mitford's love for Palewski, she depicted him in a very clear-eyed way in these novels, with no attempt to disguise his many infidelities. He took no offence at this, and when Mitford proposed to dedicate ""The Pursuit of Love"" to ""The Colonel"", he insisted on his real name being used. Gaston Palewski Gaston Palewski (20 March 1901 – 3 September 1984), French politician, was a close associate of Charles de Gaulle during and after World War II. He is also remembered as the lover of the English"
"Violet Trefusis Violet Trefusis (""née"" Keppel; 6 June 1894 – 29 February 1972) was an English socialite and author. She is chiefly remembered for her lengthy affair with the poet Vita Sackville-West, which the two women continued after their respective marriages. This was featured in novels by both parties, in Virginia Woolf's novel """", and in many letters and memoirs of the period, roughly 1912–1922. She was also the inspiration for Lady Montdore in Nancy Mitford's ""Love in a Cold Climate"" and Muriel in Harold Acton's ""The Soul's Gymnasium"". Trefusis was an author in her own right, publishing novels and"
"Way of Death"" by Jessica Mitford, documenting abuses in the funeral industry and criticizing the excessive cost of funerals. Mitford's book, and the movement it started, was one of Doughty's inspirations, but Doughty feels that while Mitford had the right target, the profit-driven funeral industry, Mitford erred in sharing the industry's, and the public's, unhealthy desire to push out of sight and avoid thinking about the corpse itself. Doughty seeks to build on Mitford's reforms but in a direction that embraces the reality of death and returns to funeral and mourning practices that include spending time with and having contact"
"ultimately became close friends of Adolf Hitler. Diana even married the British Union of Fascists' Leader, Sir Oswald Mosley. Upon the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Nazi Germany, Unity tried to commit suicide in Munich and Diana and her husband were interned without trial for the duration of the war. Jessica later described her father as ""one of nature's fascists"", Jessica (always known as Decca) renounced her privileged background at an early age and became an adherent of Stalinism. She was known as the ""red sheep"" of the family. At the age of 19, Mitford met her second"