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?!>!

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!

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."

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.

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.

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