Libby Purves with the Duchess of Devonshire on Midweek.... Oh Give Me Strength

[ipanemagirl]

I've just heard the podcast of Libby with 'DEBO' Devonshire!

I don't know how to begin to describe the vile curdle of bowing, scraping, adoring, chumminess, over-familiarity that Libby displays! She obviously is beside herself with worship and even calls the woman "Debo" a couple of times. I mean that is hardly appropriate whoever the woman was but here it is absolutely toe-curling. Honestly it is repulsive, don't listen to it. You can hear exactly how massive a snob Purves is from the arslikhan of it gross gross gross!!!

Did anyone else have the bad luck to hear this too?!>!

[edam]

Ah, sorry, got confused about midwifery. But knew she'd done something about childbirth!

[smallchange]

The American Way of Birth is the book that Jessica Mitford wrote about the American birth "industry". She was an investigative journalist/campaigner with an interest in a wide range of subjects.

It's a fascinating read if you're interested in the medicalisation of birth, albeit of less relevance due to its age and focus on the US. It seems to be out of print, but lots of secondhand copies on Amazon.

[llareggub]

I'm 33 and my mother had never heard of them until she picked up Mary Lovell's book at my house. She couldn't put it down either. I'm pretty sure I remember my grandmother talking about them though.

I'll check out the other books. I loved Nancy Mitford's novels.

I wasn't so keen on Pamela either, and would have liked to have read more about Unity. I don't like her politics or admiration for Hitler but an account of her time would be interesting.

[feelingterrible]

Uugh Libby Purves.

Can't stand her since I heard her on radio four discussing why children of single parents often did less well at school.

she said it was "because it's hard for them to study at home with the Mother's boyfriend laying on the sofa watching Sky television all day."

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Yes, don't think Decca was a midwife however I think her daughter may have been.

I think Decca would def have been a mumsnetter!

Llaregub I am Mitford obsessed - strange as I am only 31 and my mum even has never heard of them!

There are some grippings books, I don't know what you have read but the following are a good read:

The Mitford Girls - biography by Mary Lovell
Letters between 6 sisters - edited Charlotte Mosley
Letters between D Devonshire & P Leigh Fermor - edited Charlotte Mosley
Biography of Diana Mosley by Anne de Courcy
Counting your Chickens by D Devonshire

DP also bought me the selected writings of Diana Mosley which is new out - it is very good however I do feel very ambivalent about Diana Mosley, so didn't enjoy it as much as the others. There is no getting away from the fact that she is fiercely intelligent and a good writer though.

Am going to look for Nancy Mitford letters to Evelyn Waugh on Amazon now!

[llareggub]

Yes, one of those books that I couldn't put down until the end. I loved their fearlessness which I guess could be read as a sense of entitlement but they really felt they could do anything. Decca was definitely my favourite but I do want to read Debo's letters.

There is nothing in Decca's book edited by Peter Sussman about being a midwife. She did write about America's drug experimentation on prisoners. Maybe that is what you were thinking of. I agree she was very radical though, especially given her background.

Am feeling all Mitford obsessed again and may have to toddle off to the library to see if they have any books.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

The letters are great - collection of the Mitford sisters letters to one another over a period of (I think) 80 years. I am hoping another volume will come out.

Also Deborah Devonshire's letters to Patrick Leigh Fermor are a very good read.

yes, they did know everyone it seemed, from President Kennedy, to Churchill, the royal family (they famously disliked Princess Margaret, think Nancy Mitford called her a peep-toed dwarf).

I love reading the letters and about the Mitfords as it is a fascinating account of a life that was so vastly different to ours.

Agree that the gardens at Chatwsorth far more beautiful than the house, which is a bit sombre imo. Gardens and sculpture within are wonderful.

[llareggub]

I don't think she trained as a MW. She certainly transformed the funeral industry with her book on death and American funerals. Her daughter was a nurse though.

I've read a book of the Mitford sisters letter. I love the way they casually mention an historical figure. The knew everyone!

[kathyis6incheshigh]

Was Jessica Mitford really a radical midwife? I know she wrote a book about birth but I didn't know she was so practically involved!

[lowlandlady]

LOL smallchange

abraid I have nothing against the woman at all nor do I blame her for anything her sister did. It's Libby and the arselikhan I can't bear. And if this had NOT been the Duchess of Dev (dowager.. whatever) then Libby would have flung herself at the fascist connection like a great flailing limbed bull at a gate.

But not when she's bowing and scraping!!!

[abraid]

'
one of her sisters was a communist radical midwife, who fought for womens' rights to give birth without being made to be shaved/lie down/legs in stirrups and all that in the US. So it all balances out.'

Exactly. You can't blame the woman for what one of her sisters did!

[smallchange]

Has anyone read the selected letters of the sisters to each other? Deborah got on with all by being incredibly nice to the person she was writing to while slagging off all the others. Youngest-child survival skills to the fore

[lowlandlady]

LOL edam

that anecdote was a very fine one! Unfortunately I just imagined how much Libby would like it and guffaw herself off her chair in a shnorty fit of amusement at it!!!

[lowlandlady]

Listen again here to see what I mean.

No 'twas not just respect for an elderly lady, 'twas grovelling can't bear it!

I loved Chatsworth though, it is just gorgeous, the gardens more than the house imho. That fountain is just fantastic. And that whole waterfall thing and the anthony Gormley statue which I think gets moved around. Lovely shop. Yes she's been farmed out to the estate.

But Libby was doing it again today with that poet on midweek, harumphing and hinting about being at Oxford and chortleing and shnorting to herself as if everything she says is terribly amusing when it is not Libby!!!!

LOL llareggub "pash"!!!

Ok, some Mitfords deserve respect just not grovelling!

[edam]

Agree re. Chatsworth - I come from generations of Labour voters but the Devonshires do give the aristocracy a good name.

Once had a tussle with the late Duke at some event - I was trying to hold a door open for this 80-something gentleman but he was insisting on holding it open for me. I had to surrender gracefully.

[kathyis6incheshigh]

The toilets are nice too Getorfmoiland (no, really!)

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Agree re the letters of Decca. She was a brilliant writer.

Llaregub hope you enjoy your day at Chatsworth. I went there a couple of months back and really enjoyed it. What was so nice was that it was very laid back in the gardens, it is obvious that local families go there for the day with their kids to enjoy the outside space. Loads of little ones paddling in the fountains, friendly dogs lolling around, a couple of lads playing ball games. It has a lovely atmosphere.

[charitygirl]

Oh God, I felt slightly nauseated just reading the title of your post.

And I say that as someone who has read far too much Mitfordalia...

[llareggub]

I've just finished Decca's letters too, and I must admit a fondness for all things Mitford. We're off to Chatsworth soon so I can indulge my Mitford passion, or pash as they'd probably describe it.

[LadyG]

Libby Purves drives me nuts anyway. And yes I hate the bowing and scraping to thick poshos who manage to actually market their gorgeous lifestyle and hang on to all their inherited land and wealth rather than frittering it away. I have just finished reading Decca, the letters of Jessica Mitford and they are fab-she lived an amazing life.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I would have liked to heard that. I rather like Deborah Devonshire, she comes across as very self-deprecating and funny (have read various letters anthologies).

Was it really fawning for a member of the aristocracy or just respect for a 90 year old woman?

Yes, she had 2 fascists for sister, but she also had 2 sisters who were incredibly good writers (one being a social campaigner to boot), I believe that she was the only sister who spoke to all the others. Think she comes across as a good egg.

[kathyis6incheshigh]

People do grovel round the Mitfords. The worst was the awfully sucky-up articles about Diana when she was alive, which went on and on about how beautiful she was.
Jessica Mitford was very cool, but then she rejected all the aristocratic stuff.

[edam]

farm shop is V good.

one of her sisters was a communist radical midwife, who fought for womens' rights to give birth without being made to be shaved/lie down/legs in stirrups and all that in the US. So it all balances out.

[Bucharest]

I've got her "cookbook"
Nice corned beef hash recipe.
Rest of it a bit heavy on the pheasant's eggs and suchlike.
The farm shop worth a visit though.
Hasn't she moved into a house in the private village of Edensor on the estate now? Probably gets her quails eggs on toast brought down by a gloved manservant.

[ipanemagirl]

I just don't think you should respect people just because of an accident of birth. So she's Mitford, so what? What about her sister marrying a fascist? Arselikhan Libby didn't bring that up did she?!