The Mitford sisters: six aristocratic British siblings whose lives read like a novel – full of glamour, scandal, and extreme political divides. Born into privilege in the early twentieth century, the sisters became famous not as a group but as striking individuals – writers and socialites, biographers and essayists who together captured the maelstrom of the 1930’s interwar era and left a legacy that still fascinates historians today.
Jessica, who wrote Hons and Rebels and The American Way of Death, was a communist and human rights activist. Unity sympathised with the Nazis and worshipped Hitler. Nancy’s “Love in a Cold Climate” characters had a reckless upper-class Bohemianism and were determined to find life amusing at all costs, Diana became the most hated woman in Britain during World War II and Debo became a Duchess.
Brought to you in association with Wellington Arts Society, Susannah Fullerton looks at the lives and works of these unconventional sisters.
Susannah Fullerton, OAM FRSA, is Sydney’s best-known lecturer on classic novels. She lectures regularly at the State Library of NSW, at conferences, schools and libraries. She is a registered speaker for ArtsNational (previously the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society). She gives talks on famous writers and their novels, poems and plays at a great variety of places around NSW, Australia and overseas. Susannah has been President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for almost 30 years. She is also Patron of the Kipling Society of Australia, a founding member of the NSW Dickens Society and of the Australian Brontë Association. She is a Lady Patroness of the International Heyer Society. Susannah loves to share her passion for great works of literature. In addition to being the author of several books on literary figures and topics, she has published articles and reviews, organised literary events and conferences, is a tour leader and literary awards judge, and is often interviewed on TV and radio about literary concerns.
Above image: BBC.