Wondair

    

     A late addition to the non-fiction books of the year list is Charlotte Mosley's collection The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (begun last year, put aside reluctantly, finally finished), which has kept me absorbed for weeks. I have laughed helplessly countless times, been moved and been fascinated to be privy to a remarkable correspondence spanning the years from 1925 to 2002 - the letters included here being only a tiny fraction of all those exchanged by Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah.

    Despite enormous personal and political differences, distance and ideological separation, but because of genuine love and deep feelings, the sisters kept in touch assiduously, their letters often sustaining one another at their most difficult moments and providing a commentary on long lives and changing times.

     They can be variously waspish, witty, disarmingly honest, ingenuous and perceptive, but are usually warm and caring and always delightfully distinctive in tone and turn of phrase. The 'quotable quotes' might fill a volume of their own, such is the interest on every page, but for all the running jokes, the nicknames, the affection and disaffection, what is recorded here are the joys and sorrows of six lives and how those episodes - from the mundane to the dramatic - were shared. As a piece of social history they are and will be of great value, but external use apart, they are wonderfully entertaining in their own right. Do admit!

Comments

[Nicola]

Yes, I think this book is the last word on the Mitfords. I particularly liked Diana's letters - not her politics - but I enjoyed reading her letters. I'd love to have learned more about Tom, the Mitford brother.

[The Literary Stew]

I love the Mitfords! They're always fun and delightful. I read Hons and Rebels a few months back and look forward to reading more.

[Simon (Savidge Reads)]

Oh this is one of my all time favourite books and may well have to be one of my books of the noughties. I just loved every single page of it! I was very sad when it ended.

[Mary McCartney]

This is in my tbr pile and I've been looking forward to it. Maybe over Christmas...

[Simon T]

My favourite book of 2008 - led to me buying/getting all sorts of other Mitford letters, none of which have I finished...

[Nan]

The wonder of letter writing! So often you read of 'lost' things but this one really is, I think. There are emails and blogs and facebook but personal letters really don't happen very much. Really only at Christmas time can I hope to receive any notes and even then they aren't very long other than the dreaded one-letter-fits-all cards.