Diana, Lady Mosley on Desert Island Discs

Mar 19, 2022 | Interview with Diana Mosley, one of the Mitford Sisters, on the popular British radio programme, Desert Island Discs. Biographies include Jan Dalley's "Diana Mosley: A Life," "The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family," by Mary S. Lovell, and Lady Mosley's own "A Life of Contrasts". In reply to one viewer's consternation at her popularity, I replied: "The reasons for peoples' admiration of Lady Mosley are manifold. First and foremost, her aristocratic beauty, gracefulness, and elegance draw people in an almost magnetic way; when something is extremely beautiful or impressive, we forget our prejudices in order to worship at the shrine. Secondly, she is an artifact of a vanished world, so, a voice from the past. Thirdly, she was part of that Pleiades we call the Mitford Sisters, which has always drawn interest. Fourthly, her unjust imprisonment and separation from her sons pulls at the heart strings. Fifthly, fascism in the 20s and 30s was a new movement that was successful in many ways and was not connotatively besmirched as it is today. Sixthly, and most "controversially," many do not ascribe to the narrative that has been sounding from government, media, and academe for nigh on seventy years; this is a landmass unto itself, but current voices presenting a broader and deeper range of facts are the YouTube channels TIKHistory and Zoomer Historian and historian David Irving, who was sentenced to three years in jail for presenting "alternative facts". Perhaps Lady Mosley is a kind of lost goddess for these historical heretics.

Margaret Thatcher on Desert Island Discs

Oct 23, 2022 | An interview with the famed British Prime Minister on the popular radio programme, Desert Island Discs.