Trivia

One of "The Mitford Girls". Sister of Pamela Mitford (1907-1994), Tom Mitford, Lady Diana Mosley (widow of Sir Oswald Mosley), Unity Mitford (a friend of Adolf Hitler), Jessica Mitford, and Deborah Cavendish.

In early 1939, her husband, Peter Rodd, left for the South of France in order to join the relief organizations trying to help the thousands of Spanish refugees fleeing General Franco's armies in the final stages of the Spanish Civil War. Later in the year, she joined him, spending several weeks there employed as a relief worker. The experience greatly affected her, and encouraged her to become a committed anti-fascist.

She was offered the opportunity work in Hollywood as a screenwriter, but declined because it would have meant spending a substantial amount of the year away from Paris. She did, however, make uncredited revisions to the screenplay for Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

Spent most of her adult life living in Paris.

Second cousin of Rupert Mitford, and Clementine Churchill.

During the Second World War, in order to contribute to the war effort, she briefly worked as an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) driver before later taking a job at a first-aid post in Paddington.

As well as being a bestselling novelist, she also published four critically acclaimed biographies of historical figures: Madame de Pompadour, Voltaire, King Louis XIV, and Frederick the Great.

Was a close friend of Evelyn Waugh.

Sister-in-law of Sir Oswald Mosley.

Author of eight novels and four historical biographies.

Long-time secret companion of Gaston Palewski.

Her most famous novels, "The Pursuit Of Love" and "Love In A Cold Climate", both of which have several times been adapted for television, were lightly-disguised accounts of he own childhood and young womanhood, and she always insisted that there was only a slight amount of exaggeration involved in depicting the eccentricities of the English aristocracy.

She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1972 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to literature.