Of the six Mitford sisters, Diana (1910-2003) remains the most controversial. She was friends of both Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill. Her 1936 marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, was celebrated in Joseph Goebbels’ home, with Hitler as the guest of honour.
One other sister, Unity, had similar political sympathies. She also befriended Adolf Hitler, but shot herself in the head when war was declared, and died several years later in 1948. Due to Diana’s political views, her sister Jessica (a committed Communist) cut all ties with her. The other sisters overlooked or simply put aside their sister’s support of Fascism.
A Life of Contrasts
A Life of Contrasts is Diana Mosley’s autobiography, and was updated in 2002 with five new chapters. This memoir concentrates mostly on Diana’s early life, her first marriage to Bryan Walter Guiness and of course her second marriage to Sir Oswald Mosley, a union that would shape the course of her life.
Diana Mosley writes in a smooth and appealing style, which is pleasant enough to read. Her descriptions of the glittering pre-war milieu of artists, writers and politicians that she mixed in makes for an interesting snapshot of an age that has forever passed, never to return again.
Hitler, Goebbels and Diana Mitford
Of course the reader then comes to the inevitable: Diana’s friendship with Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. A fairly detailed portrait is drawn of Hitler. He is portrayed as a charming and mesmerising politician. In fact, he comes across as quite ‘normal’. Diana Mosley is also keen to correct what she thinks are errors in the history books about Hitler’s character. He didn’t mind women wearing lipstick, she insists. Despite the legend of Hitler always gorging himself of creamy cakes, the author states she never once saw him eat a cream cake.
What strikes the reader, though, is the ambivalent tone of the passages on Hitler. Mosley makes no attempt to solve the enigma of the charming man she had to her wedding who also ordered the killing of millions of Jews. Instead she makes a point of highlighting the hypocrisy of Western leaders tolerating equally murderous leaders like Mao Tse-Tung and Joseph Stalin.
On the subject of politics, Diana seems to see the world through the eyes of her husband, Sir Oswald Mosley. In the memoirs, he is referred throughout as ‘M’. The effect is to give a strange, disembodied tone. Sir Oswald does not live on the page as a fully fleshed character, but rather as something more Orwellian, like a stone cold oracle of political wisdom. The reader is constantly told of either how prescient or correct Oswald Mosley’s political views were. It makes Diana look more adoring fan than independent political thinker.
Bitterness at War Time Imprisonment
The underlying tone of A Life of Contrasts is one of bitterness. Diana Mosley and her husband were imprisoned for three years during the war, due to their right wing politics. (To imagine this scenario, one need only think of today’s anti-terrorism laws.) Habeas Corpus and the Magna Carta were suspended. The rights of free speech were dramatically curtailed. Her war time imprisonment affected her so deeply that Diana obviously never got over it.
As a political thinker, Diana seems entirely derivative and lacking in any deep insights. As a writer her sisters Jessica and Nancy eclipsed her in quality, due perhaps to their more personal honesty. The problem it seems for Diana is she could not form an opinion independent of her husband.
Despite all these faults, A Life of Contrasts makes for an intriguing literary and historical morsel.
A Life of Contrasts (1977, Updated 2002) is published by Gibson Square Books. ISBN: 9781906142148
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
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