The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict

 Marie Benedict seems to be gathering some of the strongest women who ever lived to inform readers about their stories. The Mitford Affair is her January offering, a book of historical fiction that tells about the six aristocratic Mitford sisters of England.

In their time, the 1930s onward, the sisters made their mark in England in the literary, social, and political arenas. The Mitfords could trace their origins in Northumberland, a county in Northern England that borders Scotland, back to the Norman Conquest (the 11^th century). The Times journalist Ben Macintyre dubbed the sisters as “Diana the Fascist, Jessica the Communist, Unity the Hitler-lover; Nancy the Novelist; Deborah the Duchess, and Pamela the unobtrusive poultry connoisseur.”

The novel is mostly devoted to three of the sisters--Nancy, Diana, and Unity--with the others playing smaller roles. Diana falls out of favor with her family when she divorces her husband Bryan Guinness of the Guinness family brewing fortune to marry a fascist British leader Oswald Mosley. Her sister Unity becomes fascinated by fascism and Adolph Hitler, working her way into his personal and public life, moving to Germany to cheer him on in his endeavor to unite former lands with  Germany.

The chapters written with the points of view of Diana and Unity are unique in showing a softer side of Hitler that most readers could hardly imagine: “Sometimes it’s hard for her [Diana] to believe that this kind gentleman with the most impeccable manners is the same person who so boldly and unexpectedly violated the Munich Agreement…”

In her own way, Nancy the Novelist, tries to persuade her sisters in this explosive political climate leading up to World War II to realize that they are being used by Hitler to further his plans for bringing Great Britain into the fold. Nancy feels forced to choose between her family or her country as September 1, 1939, draws near.

Marie Benedict’s subjects do not always interest me, but her writing draws me in each time. Tiring of the glut of  world war books, I found a different perspective of the war from those who lived through it. Benedict is a lawyer with more than 10 years of experience as a commercial litigator. She lives with her family in Pittsburgh.

While New York City lawyer, Marie dreamed of unearthing the hidden historical stories about strong women. The women featured in her novels include the physicist wife of Albert Einstein in The Other Einstein, Clara Kelley, the woman who encouraged Andrew Carnegie to become a philanthropist, in Carnegie’s Maid, and Agatha Christie, mystery writer supreme, in The Mystery of Mrs. Christie. Her other books include The Only Woman in the Room about Hedy Lamarr and her invention, Lady Clementine about Winston Churchill’s wife who also happened to be related to the Mitford family, and The Personal Librarian about Belle da Costa Greene, the personal librarian to J.P. Morgan.