Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, was an American socialite and wife of the former King Edward VIII. Their intention to marry and her status as a divorcée caused a constitutional crisis that led to Edward's abdication.
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member of parliament and later founded and led the British Union of Fascists (BUF).
The Mitford family is an aristocratic English family, whose principal line had its seats at Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland. A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberland, and Exbury House, Hampshire, descends via the historian William Mitford (1744–1827) and were twice elevated to the British peerage, in 1802 and 1902, under the title Baron Redesdale.
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, known as Nancy Mitford, was an English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "bright young things" on the London social scene in the inter-war period. She wrote several novels about upper-class life in England and France, and is considered a sharp and often provocative wit. She also has a reputation as a writer of popular historical biographies.
Jessica Lucy "Decca" Treuhaft was an English author, one of the six aristocratic Mitford sisters noted for their sharply conflicting politics.
Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford was a British socialite, known for her relationship with Adolf Hitler. Both in Great Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism, fascism and antisemitism, and belonged to Hitler's inner circle of friends. After the declaration of World War II, Mitford attempted suicide in Munich by shooting herself in the head. She survived but was badly injured. She was allowed safe passage back to England but never recovered from the extensive brain damage. She died from meningitis related to the bullet in her brain.
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was an English aristocrat, writer, memoirist, and socialite. She was the youngest and last-surviving of the six Mitford sisters, who were prominent members of British society in the 1930s and 1940s.
Diana, Lady Mosley was a British aristocrat, fascist, writer and editor. She was one of the Mitford sisters and eventually, the wife of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists.
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, following the start of the Second World War, the party was proscribed by the British government and in 1940 it was disbanded.
Mosley was a 1998 television serial produced for Channel 4 based on British fascist Sir Oswald Mosley's life in the period between the two world wars. The series was directed by Robert Knights, from a screenplay by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, both better known for their television comedy series. It was based on the books Rules of the Game and Beyond the Pale by Nicholas Mosley, Mosley's son.
Hons and Rebels, originally published in the United States under the title Daughters and Rebels, is a 1960 autobiography by political activist Jessica Mitford, which describes her aristocratic childhood and the conflicts between her and her sisters Unity and Diana, who were ardent supporters of Nazism. Jessica was a supporter of Communism and eloped with her second cousin, Esmond Romilly, to fight with the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, and Diana grew up to marry Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. Unity befriended Nazi leader Hitler, who praised her as an ideal of Aryan beauty.
David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale was a British soldier, prospector and landowner. He was the father of the Mitford sisters, in whose various novels and memoirs he is depicted.
The Hitler family comprises the relatives and ancestors of Adolf Hitler, an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party. He was the dictator of Germany, holding the title Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and was also head of state as Führer und Reichskanzler from 1934 to 1945. He is noted for his central role in the rise of Nazism in Germany, provoking the start of World War II, and holding ultimate responsibility for the deaths of many millions of people during the Holocaust.
Major Thomas David Freeman-Mitford was the only son of the 2nd Baron Redesdale and brother of the Mitford Sisters. Tom Mitford was killed in action during the Second World War.
A Life of Contrasts is the autobiography of Diana Mosley, one of the Mitford sisters, that was first published in 1977. In 2002, she released a revised edition of the book.
The Pursuit of Laughter is a 2008 collection of diaries, articles, reviews and portraits by Diana Mosley. The book was published by Gibson Square and edited by Martin Rynja. Mosley's sister, Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, provides the introduction. The title is a homage to another Mitford sister's book, Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love.
The European was a limited-circulation political and cultural magazine published between 1953 and 1959. It was edited by Diana Mosley of the Mitford family. As Diana Mitford, Mosley had been one of the bright young things and had cultivated friendships with several of the contributors to the magazine. These included Ezra Pound, Henry Williamson, and Roy Campbell. The magazine was published by Euphorion Books, a publishing company formed by Mosley and her husband, Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the pre-war British Union of Fascists.
Wigs on the Green is a 1935 satirical novel by Nancy Mitford. A roman à clef, it is notable for lampooning British fascism, specifically political enthusiasms of Mitford's sisters Unity Mitford and Diana Mosley.
The Union Movement (UM) was a far-right political party founded in the United Kingdom by Oswald Mosley. Before the Second World War, Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) had wanted to concentrate trade within the British Empire, but the Union Movement attempted to stress the importance of developing a European nationalism, rather than a narrower country-based nationalism. That has caused the UM to be characterised as an attempt by Mosley to start again in his political life by embracing more democratic and international policies than those with which he had previously been associated. The UM has been described as post-fascist by former members such as Robert Edwards, the founder of the pro-Mosley European Action, a British pressure group.
