By Mary Lovell
These six sisters, starting with Nancy (b 1904) through Deborah (d 2014), along with a brother who died during wartime, were born into a family of minor peerage parents, who moved into progressively smaller homes (from the Redesdale estate [Batsford] to a London rental). They bonded with many literary (Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman) and political (Hitler, Mosley, Kennedy) figures, and were related to Winston Churchill. The sisters came of age at the end of WW1 through the start of WW2. Their individual sympathies lay with Nazism (Unity, who shot herself when Britain declared war on Germany), Fascism (Diana, who left her aristocrat husband to marry Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists), anti-Fascism (Nancy), and communism (Jessica) - resulting in family disagreements that were never resolved. (Even the parents split over political differences.) They were a fascinating family, nearly all of the women publishing successful books (most of which were about their family, although one [The American Way of Death by Jessica] was a scathing look at the costs of American funerals. Despite their success in the literary and social realm, this family appeared to have no moral underpinnings (e.g., they should know that anti-Semitism is unjustifiable and cruel) and could not hold their family together, though the two youngest sisters, Jessica and Deborah (who was the Duchess of Devonshire), did have strong marriages. While Lord and Lady Redesdale may have been poor role models as parents, they did raise six very different daughters whose fascinating lives reflect much of the history and culture of England and western Europe for nearly 100 years.
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