The story of the "seventh Mitford woman," a long-overlooked figure in the Mitford canon—told in full for the first time.
Everyone knows about the six flamboyant Mitford girls but in fact there were seven remarkable women in the famous family—the seventh was "Muv," Lady Sydney Redesdale, the mother of the notorious sisters. Too often portrayed as different from them and outside the girl gang, she was really the original and much of her daughters’ strong will, self-confidence, and extremism came from her.
Sydney Redesdale was a divisive figure both among her daughters and subsequent biographers. Until their deaths, her girls were still squabbling over what she was really like, their differing views of her persisted for even longer than the political divides between them. Each daughter wanted to control the narrative and they wrote competing novels, memoirs and letters to vindicate their perspective. For Nancy and Jessica, she was a scapegoat. For Unity, Diana, Debo and Pam, she was a saint.
Biographers have been equally divided about how she should be portrayed. Many wondered how such exceptional children could spring from such ordinary parents, but was Sydney really so "ordinary?" The story of her life at the heart of one of Britain’s most famous families is told in full here for the first time and is a missing piece in understanding one of the twentieth century's most complex and fascinating families.
“Trethewey explores the life of Lady Sydney Redesdale, mother of the infamous Mitford sisters. Trethewey uses letters, memoirs and Nancy Mitford’s semiautobiographical novels as sources and provides context related to the position of the Mitfords within English aristocratic society. An engaging look at the changing English aristocracy before and after WWII.”
“Trethewey offers a well-researched life of the mother of the six famous Mitford sisters, Sydney Redesdale. Drawing on family papers, biographies, and interviews with some of Sydney’s descendants, she reveals a stubborn woman. A sympathetic biography of a complex woman.”
“Rachel Trethewey’s Mothers of the Mind is an engrossing and magnificently rewarding study of the relationships between three literary women – Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath – and their mothers. In Muv, Trethewey looks with equally clear eyes at the tremendous influence exerted on the celebrated Mitford sisters by their strong-willed and alarmingly fervent mother, Sydney Redesdale. Fascinating stuff from one of our most innovative biographers.”
“For the first time, the matriarch of the Mitfords emerges as an exciting historical figure in her own right, who was as brilliant and maddening as her six daughters. A treat for Mitford aficionados, this book offers a wealth of new information, re-framing and refreshing the story of the Mitfords as never before. Rachel Trethewey has set a new standard in the Mitford world – a truly dazzling book.”
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