After the discussion, we will vote in our next 4 selections ( 2 Historical Fiction & 2 Contemporary/Literary Fiction).
Mary S. Lovell has written earlier biographies of Beryl Markham, Amelia Earhart, the Churchills, and Richard and Isabel Burton (explorers, not actors).
Years ago I read Lovell's biography on Beryl Markham, "Straight on Till Morning" and loved it. I had seen the
1985 movie "Out of Africa" with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Immediately afterwards I read the book and anything I could find on Denys Finch-Hatton and Beryl Markham. Beryl Markham's memoir "West with the Night" published in 1942 was an incredible piece of adventure writing. I digress from my focus here but as all book lovers know and attest to, a book enjoyed is a book meant to be shared.
Author Mary Lovell was an accountant and company director until she suffered a serious riding accident, breaking her back in 1980, and thus began her writing life. A British writer, some of Lovell's works have been translated into French, German and Danish. "Amelia," a major motion picture based on "The Sound of Wings, was released in 2009, staring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor. According to her biography (Contemporary Authors Online, 2012), the author enjoys flying, sailing, foxhunting, history and travel. She is married with two children. The author stated, "Writing a biography is writing history.....I enjoy writing about adventurous women, especially those who managed to break out of the conventional mold allotted to them, before women enjoyed today's freedoms."
Two of the remaining sisters, Diana & Deborah, were interviewed for Lovell's book, published in 2001.
Diana lived in Paris until her death in 2003. Deborah died at the age of 94 in 2014.
The Gawker Review of Books (9/26/14), compared the Mitford girls to today's headline grabbing girls:
"....(they) were the Middletons of their day. That is , if Kate had literary talent, and was ever called upon to utter a political opinion. And if Pippa married a fascist."