This is the autobiography of one of the notorious Mitford daughters. The whole family seemed extremely strange, eccentric to the point of being marginally insane. Of the girls, Diana married Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, after breaking up his marriage to fellow MP Lady Cynthia who was dying, having previously married the heir to the Guiness fortune; Unity developed an obsession with Hitler, stalking him in Berlin, and attempted suicide when the War broke out; another married the Duke of Devonshire; yet another becanme a successful novelist writing thinly veiled books about her upbringing, while Jessica became a Communist fellow traveller and eloped with a cousin who was fighting for the Republicans in Spain. She certainly had a lot of life to include in this book - which only covers the period up to 1942, when she was still young. It is difficult to tell how much of this book is true (as it the world as seen through her eyes) - but she clearly writes from the heart with great humour and lightness of touch, in places with almost too much impartiality, distancing herself from the obviously emotionally searing events of her life. At times I found her approach too dispassionate - but maybe that is her form of protection. A classic poor little rich girl perhaps, leading such a strange childhood as to be surprising that these girls didn't turn out even more strange than they were in real life. The earliest sections are her best and when she gets to the times after the Spanish Civil War it begins to drag slightly, but then picks up. A true classic though, and such an insight into all aspects of life in the 1920s and 30s. Rating 8/10
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