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I'm finishing Laura Thompson's The Six, a book about a niche interest of mine: the Mitford sisters. Mine is an advance copy courtesy of a publishing rep, so it's not out yet, but it was previously published in the UK as Take Six Girls. I'm a little disappointed over the title change! The US title does sound sort of magisterial, though... I've been disappointed with previous biographies about the sisters. They seemed either too preferential (which is hard to escape when you're writing a bio, I know) or too caught up in the sisters' own myth-making. But Thompson is very even-handed in her treatment, analytical, critical, and compassionate all at once. Anyway, if you're interested in the Mitfords, in midcentury feminine middlebrow, the interwar era, etc. I'd pick it up. eudaemaniac fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jul 29, 2016 |
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Jul 29, 2016 21:05
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Jimmithy posted:The Mitfords own the pub my grandad used to run back in the sixties The Swan?
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Jul 30, 2016 16:48
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Earwicker posted:thanks for the recommendation - I have encountered stories about the Mitfords while reading about various other things and was always intrigued and though I should learn more, so now I will. Do it! I'd also recommend Lovell's The Sisters, with some reservations. I feel as though it is very apologetic towards Diana and dismissive of Jessica, which probably says something about my own politics (and while I admire Jessica, I think she was just kinda... mean; I think most of the actual political action she took was for the better, being so involved with the civil rights movement, but her actual personality seemed dreadful). I'd also recommend Jessica's own memoir, Hons and Rebels, with the caveat that it's mostly hogwash but it's really entertaining.
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Jul 30, 2016 19:30
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