Charlotte Mosley has committed much of her time to the job of editing the letters of the famous Mitford sisters. Amongst the collections she has edited are Love From Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford, The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh and a collection of Nancy Mitford's writings A Talent to Annoy: Essays, Articles and Reviews, 1929-68.
Mosley's masterpiece, however, must be Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters. This collection skillfully edits down from a total correspondence of 12,000 letters between the six Mitford sisters - Diana, Unity, Jessica, Deborah, Nancy and Pamela - into a compelling story of love, life, humour, betrayal and loyalty.
Charlotte Mosley, who is Diana Mitford's daughter in law, is an editor, publisher and journalist. Mosley clearly has a sharp eye for the literary and historical value of the Mitford sisters' letters, and has ensured a wide readership with her superbly edited collections.
Now Mosley has turned her attention to the letters between the youngest of the Mitford sisters, Deborah, and her life-long friend, travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Deborah Devonshire Meets Patrick Leigh Fermor
Deborah Mitford married Andrew Devonshire in 1941, later becoming the Duchess of Devonshire. She met writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor in 1956 at Lismore Castle, in Ireland. The two hit it off instantly and became life long correspondents. An editor's note lets the reader know that Devonshire and Fermor are still corresponding. Indeed, they're both still living.
Deborah's friendship with Patrick Leigh Fermor probably worked so well because Deborah never took herself seriously as a writer. Writers can be fickle, and Deborah's dismissive attitude of all things bookish made her no literary threat. In one letter she says how she hates books, this to a published author!
Devonshire always maintained she never read books. Her later career as author she maintained was a complete accident. Someone asked her to write a book about her beloved property Chatsworth, and so she complied.
Leigh Fermor's Literary Style; Deborah Devonshire's Quick, Pithy Letters
Patrick Leigh Fermor comes through the letters as more of the writer. His long descriptions show off his peerless skills as a travel writer. Frequently the Proustian detail of his letters marvel the reader. Deborah, in contrast, writes sharp, pithy letters with truncated spelling and syntax. The tone is one of a busy life dashing off to exciting functions here and there, throwing out sharp, in-passing observations.
The letters detail many of Deborah's exciting social engagements, although she doesn't name drop. Anything but. Like the other Mitford sisters, she was fond of making up her own knicknames for people. In these letters the Queen Mother is referred to as Cake, John F. Kennedy as The Loved One.
The charm of the collection is to allow the reader to also live this friendship of over 50 years. Time passes quickly in life, doubly so on the page. The pages are being turned, and soon the realisation dawns that Devonshire and Fermor are hurtling towards their eighties. If they set an example, it's to show how to live life to the full well into old age. The letters display minds as sharp in their eighties as when the writers were in their thirties.
Once again editor Charlotte Mosley has done a terrific job of exhuming these private letters and making them a cause for public celebration. The letters are all exhaustively footnoted, allowing the reader to put people and events in historical and social context.
Mitford fans won't be disappointed in this new collection.
Published by John Murray, 2008
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
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