sugar and spice and all things not so nice

Author : Laura Thompson
Title : Take Six Girls
Published : 11/08/2016
Pages : 400
Genre : Biography
Publisher : Head Of Zeus

      They were the Mitford sisters: Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. Born into country-house privilege in the early years of the 20th century, they became prominent as 'bright young things' in the high society of interwar London. Then, as the shadows crept over 1930s Europe, the stark – and very public – differences in their outlooks came to symbolize the political polarities of a dangerous decade.

 

     A little while ago I came across an article about the Mitford sisters. Before this, I had not heard of this group of sisters who embodied the other side of Britain during the Nazi years of Germany. I suppose I never really thought of those who had aligned themselves with Nazi. We tend to think of Brittan during this time as the small nation fighting for freedom against this evil force that tried to destroy Europe. In a lot of ways, I find it difficult to see how anyone could have chosen this path, Let alone a group of six sisters who seemed on the surface to have had everything going for them. So I thought it was about time that I delved a little deeper into there lives to find out how such events came to be.

     Thompson does a great job of bringing these girls to the forefront of life. She shows how each of them for different reasons came to have a fascination with the Adolf Hitler and everything he stood for. But this is not just a book about the fascist movement of the era, She charts there lives and that of there family to give a great insight into who they where.  On the surface, it would seem they had a fairly idyllic childhood growing up in houses that a lot of people at the time could not imagine living in. With servants and the best of everything at there figure tips. But as so often is the case looks can be deceiving. Behind the façade of Downton Abbey like living these where the end times for the great British aristocracy. Times were starting to become tough and the great wealth that had kept them in a lifestyle they were accustomed to was drying up.

     I was left with a great uneasy feeling as to just how much of the British aristocracy actually felt a connection with Hitler. This was not just a group of young and impressionable girls falling under the spell of a dictator. It was almost like they saw him as a savior for there way of life. I found it fascinating to see how each of them was twisted into something that during there childhood would have seemed so completely unlikely.  It was not like these girls were stupid or idiotic, each showed in one way or another a great intellect. With a great thirst, they seemed to have absorbed languages and the writing of books.  But the would forever find themselves mired in one scandal or another.

    This book, however, does bring a lighter side to these girls at time humorous and funny. It's the difficult juxtapose of human nature. while they were never directly responsible for the horrific crime carried out by the Nazi the did align themselves with them. And then how can we feel sympathy for them. But to some extent, that is what the author manages to do. She shows they where just as much victims of circumstance as they are for there own actions or is this simply a cop out . I suppose this book doesn't really show how much of the final solution they were truly a wear of at the time. After however, they could not escape the accusations being leveled at them, traitors to there own country. The Mitford in the own ways would try and move past all this in the post-war years. And on some strange level, the British public seems to have forgiven them for there choices.

     After reading this book I have gained a greater insight into the lives of these six women. The author has I think has done an amazing job of capturing who they where. I, on the other hand, am still conflicted as to how I feel about them.  Had they been German would the still have gone on to have the lives they did. And should we as a nation simply write them off or realise that not all was so jolly in merry old England.