Rarely out of the papers during their lifetimes, and still figures of fascination in modern media, the six Mitford sisters have become notorious. From a shared, if eccentric childhood, the sisters grew into very different women. As adults, they inhabited diverse worlds, from the literary to the agricultural, and rubbed shoulders with both the aristocratic leaders of English society and Europe's fascist elite.  

But how did one family produce such a disparate group of women? What role did they play in the political and cultural life of interwar Britain? And why do they continue to fascinate us? 

This is a Short History Of The Mitford Sisters. 

A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Mary Lovell, bestselling author of The Mitford Girls: The Biography of an Extraordinary Family. 

Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Assistant Producer: Nicole Edmunds | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay, Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact check by Sean Coleman

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