The Truth About the Mitford Sisters
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
History Hit
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Mitfords could rank as the strangest family of the 20th century.
Unity and Diana were passionate fascists who became obsessed with Adolf Hitler, while Jessica became a communist. Unity even became mates with Hitler and was in Germany as the war broke out.
How did these aristocrats move in such controversial circles? What happened when the Second World War broke out? How did their stories end?
Joining Kate today is the author and cartoonist, Mimi Pond, who has written a new book about the Mitford sisters.
This episode was edited by Tim Arstall and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister, you are listening to Betwix the Sheets. If this isn't the podcast that you wanted to listen to, you can get out now. Be off with you. Don't be hanging around, slowing the rest of us down. And if you did want to stay, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast, spoken by adults, other adults about adulty things in an adulty way covering a range of all the subjects and you should be an adult too. Shall we proceed together? Let's do it. |
| 0:25.1 | It's September 1939 and British socialite Unity Mitford has just found out that her beloved homeland has declared war on Germany. |
| 0:34.3 | It's fair to say that this poses something of a moral quandary for unity, who has gone |
| 0:38.3 | all in for the fascist movement that swept Europe and the UK, and is an obsessed follower, |
| 0:44.6 | almost groupy, of none other than Adolf freaking Hitler. Yikes. It said that she actually went to |
| 0:52.7 | Germany and she met Adolf over a hundred times, |
| 0:56.0 | which all became particularly awkward in the Mitford family given that her sister Jessica was a devoted communist. |
| 1:03.0 | The six Mitford sisters are the stuff of legend. |
| 1:07.0 | It wasn't just unity that was signing up to the fascist cause in that family. |
| 1:11.2 | Other sisters went on to be world-famous novelists. |
| 1:14.1 | One of them became the Duchess of Devonshire. |
| 1:16.4 | You couldn't accuse anyone of indoctrinating someone in that family. |
| 1:20.1 | And how did all of this unfold, you might be wondering? |
| 1:22.4 | Well, dramatically, to say the least. |
| 1:24.7 | Should we find out more? I think so. Hello and welcome back to Petwix the Sheets, The History of Sex Scandal and Society with me, Kate Lister. |
| 2:00.1 | Groupies are an |
| 2:01.0 | interesting social and historical phenomenon, aren't they? And we usually associate them with rock groups. |
| 2:07.1 | Well, weirdly, fascist dictators have groupies as well. And I think it's fair to say that |
| 2:12.7 | Unity and Diana Mitford were fascist groupies. And that was just two of the Mitford sisters. |
| 2:19.3 | Wait till you hear about the rest of them. |
| 2:21.0 | Joining me today to help me get to know their story a little bit better |
| 2:24.4 | is the fabulous cartoonist and author Mimi Pond, |
... |
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