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U.K.S.wondery. That's audible.com.uk.U.K. slash Wondery. Welcome to Dunn and Dun. I'm Alicia, your hostess on this podcast journey,

All Things Dominic Dunn, where nothing is linear and everything is connected.

Have a little bit of a surprise episode for you this week, investigators, dropping before our

next long series December 17th, and friends, it is a delightful ride through so many spiderwebs.

With the theme of debutantes that keeps popping up in my

research for Dun & Dun, there was no better time to bring the legendary six Mitford sisters

into the mix. These six women have a front row seat to so many decades and so many players in the 20th century, not to mention

being players themselves.

Once you know about the Midford sisters, each one of them so very different, but all so

much involved in so many multiple decades within world events, high society, literature,

you will never forget them. Once you know about them, you may be surprised where these gals

pop up. I have a terrific introduction here from James Wolcott, writing in May 2016 for Vanity Fair in a piece

called That Mitford Mystique. For the sake of clarity, not to mention sanity, let's fill out

the lineup card first. Sion of an aristocratic family that traced its heritage back to the Norman conquest,

David Freeman Mitford, who would become Baron Reedsdale and his wife, Sydney, bestowed upon

the world's six daughters, in order of birth, Nancy, Pam, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah, and a son, Tom.

They grew up in a series of country houses and cottages, where their eccentricities and

enthusiasms flowered like orchids. Only the son was formally schooled, owing to finances,

as much as to male entitlement.

The Mithford's were socially privileged, but not economically flush.

The girls' education was a more spotty haphazard affair, with then mother in an array of governesses, teaching lessons and reading, arithmetic, and French, leaving big blanks in the curriculum.

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