If you’re thinking about checking out The Mitford Affair, don’t worry about spoilers. The first part of my reviews are always spoiler-free so you can see if the book is your cup of tea. After a quick summary and a basic review, I’ll give a spoiler warning and do a deep dive into everything I loved and hated about The Mitford Affair.

Originally a lawyer, Marie Benedict has several successful books, including Her Hidden Genius and The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. The Mitford Affair came out in early 2023 and Benedict already has another book coming in June 2023, The First Ladies.

Content Warning

I always like to give a quick content warning for any sensitive topics. These are some content warnings for The Mitford Affair:

Racism.
The Holocaust.
Genocide.
Political rallies.
Fascism.
Nazis.
Self-harm.
Suicide.
Guns.

Quick Synopsis

The Mitford Affair is the story of five sisters living in England just before the start of World War II. Though there are five of them, the most important three are Nancy, Diana, and Unity. Diana and Unity are fascinated and quickly entranced by the fascist party in Great Britain, while Nancy is less interested, and eventually troubled by the ideas her sisters are subscribing to. This book is relevant because it mirrors many current issues and events, such as political beliefs that polarize families.

My Rating

Everybody has to come up with their own system for judging and rating books, and here’s mine:

One star: I couldn’t finish the book. (DNF)
Two stars: I struggled to finish, but I did.
Three stars: This book was okay and worth reading.
Four stars: I liked this book and I would recommend it to a friend.
Five stars: I’d read this book again, and it’s going on my favorites shelf.

By no means do I think this is a perfect rating system, but I had to come up with something that would help me avoid arbitrarily assigning ratings. This provides a solid guideline for rating qualifications.

I gave this The Mitford Affair a three-star rating, because I thought it was worth reading, but I wouldn’t read it again or recommend it to a friend. If you like books set in the World War II era or your appreciate female leads, you may enjoy this book.

If you liked The Mitford Affair, these are some other titles you may enjoy:

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Salt to the Sea Ruta Sepetys
The Paris Dressmaker Kristy Cambron

Summary

We’re now entering the spoiler-y part of this review. If you think The Mitford Affair sounds like your cup of tea, click away, read it, and come back to see if you agree or disagree with my critique. If you like the sound of the book but you don’t want to read it, don’t worry, I’ll give you the full rundown.

SPOILERS

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SPOILERS -

The Mitford Affair begins in Great Britain at a ball. We meet each of the important sisters, including Unity, the awkward sister with a pet rat, Nancy, the intelligent and funny sister, and Diana, the crown jewel of the daughters. It’s a ball designed to introduce Unity to society, and Diana is hosting it with her husband, Brian.

We soon learn that Diana is planning to divorce Brian and leave him so she can be with another man named Mosely, whom she simply calls “M.” The sisters are concerned about her, and her parents are furious, but she goes through with the divorce and moves into her own place.

Mosley is a facist fanatic and the leader of the facist party in Britain. Nancy, her fiance Peter, Unity, and Diana attend a few of his rallies, until some protesters arrive and the facists become violent, causing the crowd to surge toward the exits. The sisters become separated and Nancy is appalled by the use of violence to quiet the nay-sayers, and decides not to return to the rallies.

Her sister Unity, however, is practically in love with the group and everything they stand for. She convinces her parents to send her to a finishing school in Germany so she can be at the center of where Facism is the strongest. She begins stalking Hitler and patiently waits for him to notice her.

Nancy sees what’s happening with Unity and Diana, and writes a novel called Wigs on the Green featuring Unity and Mosley as thinly veiled characters. Diana is furious about this and stops speaking to her sister, as the book paints both Mosley and the facist party in a negative light.

Unity continues her quest to align herself with facism, finally meeting Hitler and getting close to him. She spends enough time around him to become part of his inner circle, and receives an apartment in Munich from him. She makes public statements on behalf of the Nazis, not just as a British poster-girl for their cause, but also as the cousin of Winston Churchill.

Diana uses Unity’s position with Hitler to gain power and money for Mosley, and begins making plans for a radio station based in Germany that would broadcast to British citizens. When war breaks out between the two countries, Diana and Mosley are forced to return to Britain, where intelligence agencies are looking into their relationship with the Nazis.

Unity doesn’t take the news of the brewing war lightly, and tells Diana that she intends to take her own life. Diana brushes this off and returns to Britain without her. Unity does try to hurt herself, and the family toils for a few weeks, waiting to hear from her. Finally, they discover that she’s in a hospital recovering from the attempt.

When Unity returns home, it’s not as herself. She has to be completely cared for and no longer speaks. Diana visits and it’s revealed that she knew what Unity was planning, and left her in Germany alone anyway. Nancy becomes convinced that Diana is not the same sister she knew, and decides to work with her cousin Winston Churchill.

She provides him with documents showing Diana’s plans to construct a radio station, and both Diana and Mosley are arrested. The book ends with Nancy visiting Diana in prison, knowing that Diana will eventually read her latest novel, **********Pigeon Pie**********, that will reveal Nancy’s part in Diana’s imprisonment.

Deep Dive

Praise

Now that you have a quick rundown, let’s get to my deep dive. I always like to start with what I like first. My favorite thing about this book was how it mirrored some current trends with politics and family members.

While at first Nancy engages in the facist rallies with her sisters to show that she values their interests, she quickly becomes troubled at the messaging. She’s forced to slowly watch her siblings align themselves with an ideology that not just passively harms others, but is actively violent to Jewish people and any others who don’t fit into the ideal mold.

I thought that Nancy’s experience was nuanced and realistic, with several instances of her wondering how she could turn her own sister in to the government. I think it reflects the real-life experience that many of us may experience when dealing with family members who aren’t allies.

Criticism

My first criticism for The Mitford Affair has to do with the ending. I felt it was very abrupt; it almost felt unfinished. I read most of this book on my Kindle, and I had tapped to go to the next page when I suddenly realized the book was over. Obviously that’s not something that would happen if you were reading a physical book, but it was just shocking to realize the ending is Nancy seeing her sister in prison.

Though there are two other sisters in the Mitford sisters, the three we focus on the most are Nancy, Diana, and Unity. I know this book is based on a true story, but I still somewhat felt that the inclusion of Decca and Pamela could have just been avoided. We get some information about Decca supporting communism and leaving to go to first Spain, and then the United States, and we hear about Pamela moving to the country and working on a farm, but I thought that the book would have done just find without having them in it. I think that having just the three sisters may have made the story seem a bit more focused.

These area some books I may read next:

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
The Maid by Nita Prose

Book Review | The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict