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bedjacket's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
funniest part is when she says it was strange that her sister was a fascist because she was "so tolerant and openminded in every other way!" like... what else is there? she also notes that Hitler made time to see her for tea, despite being so busy, and spends more lines denigrating some Californian communists that she met at her other sisters than him, lol.
cimorene1558's review against another edition
4.0
Very charming book. I feel sure that whatever else she is, Deborah Devonshire is a nice person. And she's known (and is related to) an awful lot of famous and/or interesting people, lived through major changes and in ways that most of us can't even imagine. Even if she didn't write in a charming and sympathetic manner, this would be worth reading, but since she does...!
bkread2's review against another edition
5.0
It took me longer than I anticipated, but it was well worth it!
deballen21's review against another edition
3.0
Any thing by one of the Mitford sisters is worth reading to get an insight to the workings of the British aristocracy and the inevitable changes over the last century. Debo is not as good a writer as her sisters with a lot of her books a series of vignettes rather than a narrative. But some of the images are wonderful and like the death of her mother, when she and her sisters were on an outer Hebrides island running out of fuel for heating and food.
s0ffs's review against another edition
Oh dear. She really despised Nancy, didn’t she?
woodsy23's review against another edition
2.0
Wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. I find the Mitfords a fascinating family and loved The Mitford Girls by Mary Lovell. Sadly this didn't live up to expectations, it was very much a surface level re telling of parties attended and all the famous people she knows / knew. Don't recall finding out very much about the duchess herself or her family, just where she went and when.
caroparr's review against another edition
4.0
Any book by a Mitford is sure to be fun. The best bits here are about her childhood, even though we've read it all before from Decca, Nancy and Diana. Her account of her adult years is grouped by topic - the Kennedys, for example - and feels a bit perfunctory despite some wonderful stories. Old age is catching up with her and her friends (a hilarious story about Patrick Leigh Fermor in the bath at age 90 noticing with horror that his feet had turned black, then realizing he had merely forgotten to take off his socks) though she seems to be living alone (with lots of help) quite happily. Chronicling the deaths of her beloved parents, husband and sisters is very sad. "I wondered how anyone could die without at least four daughters at their bedside," she writes.
awin82's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book - such an interesting life she's leading.