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Wait for Me!: Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister
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'A touching, funny memorial to a vanished age' -- Stephen Moss, Guardian 'I was captivated ... unputdownable' -- Bel Mooney, Daily Mail 'The Duchess is an exhilarating writer, with a great gift for storytelling, and a prose style of elegant simplicity' -- Jane Shilling, Evening Standard 'Wait For Me! proves irresistible, even for die-hard Mitphobes like me' -- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 'Funny and sad, the irresistible combination that is one of the secrets of charm' -- Daily Telegraph 'She [Debo] is in possession of what I can only describe as a uniquely Mitford-esque sensibility; loving but unsentimental; devoid of self-pity; unwilling to bore others with her own travails; able to find the ridiculous in almost anything ... these qualities - disarmingly rare in Oprahworld - are , to me, indisputably admirable' -- Observer 'An entertaining, lively portrait' -- Scotsman 'The one book this year that everyone will want in their Christmas stocking' -- A. N. Wilson, Spectator 'Admirably done, cannily blending disclosure and reticence in a charming book that kept me riveted, both by what is said ... and what remains firmly under wraps' -- Daily Telegraph Biographies of the Year 'I cried several times during Deborah Devonshire's memoir ... the calibre of events, cast and author could hardly be higher and Debo has potted an extraordinary life (though ordinary to her) with kindness and humour' -- Rachel Johnson, Observer Christmas special '[Debo] is a glorious testament to the fact that we should never retire early in case our brains atrophy. It's stuffed full of wonderful people, and Debo has a great ear for the killer, defining quote ... Just reading this book made me hare off to visit Chatsworth ... The best books make you see the world differently and maybe want to change yours. We will not see her like again' -- Liz Jones, Daily Mail Christmas books special 'Talk about a life lived in full ... Her memoirs, Wait for Me! are as fascinating and entertaining a portrait of the last century as you could hope to read' -- Sandra Parsons, Daily Mail Christmas books special 'Deborah Devonshire has had an astonishing life and her memoirs are peopled by a cast of characters that includes Winston Churchill, the Queen, John F. Kennedy, Lucian Freud and Elivs Presley ... She's also unusually frank about her late husband's alcoholism. Yet while there's a lot of sadness in this book, there's no self-pity. Instead, you get the impressions that, at 90, Deborah Devonshire's zest for life, gossip and mischief is as strong as ever' -- John Preston, Daily Mail Christmas books special 'A touching, funny memorial to a vanished age' -- Stephen Moss, Guardian 'I was captivated ... unputdownable' -- Bel Mooney, Daily Mail 'The Duchess is an exhilarating writer, with a great gift for storytelling, and a prose style of elegant simplicity' -- Jane Shilling, Evening Standard 'Wait For Me! proves irresistible, even for die-hard Mitphobes like me' -- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 'Funny and sad, the irresistible combination that is one of the secrets of charm' -- Daily Telegraph 'She [Debo] is in possession of what I can only describe as a uniquely Mitford-esque sensibility; loving but unsentimental; devoid of self-pity; unwilling to bore others with her own travails; able to find the ridiculous in almost anything ... these qualities - disarmingly rare in Oprahworld - are , to me, indisputably admirable' -- Observer 'An entertaining, lively portrait' -- Scotsman 'The one book this year that everyone will want in their Christmas stocking' -- A. N. Wilson, Spectator 'Admirably done, cannily blending disclosure and reticence in a charming book that kept me riveted, both by what is said ... and what remains firmly under wraps' -- Daily Telegraph Biographies of the Year 'I cried several times during Deborah Devonshire's memoir ... the calibre of events, cast and author could hardly be higher and Debo has potted an extraordinary life (though ordinary to her) with kindness and humour' -- Rachel Johnson, Observer Christmas special '[Debo] is a glorious testament to the fact that we should never retire early in case our brains atrophy. It's stuffed full of wonderful people, and Debo has a great ear for the killer, defining quote ... Just reading this book made me hare off to visit Chatsworth ... The best books make you see the world differently and maybe want to change yours. We will not see her like again' -- Liz Jones, Daily Mail Christmas books special 'Talk about a life lived in full ... Her memoirs, Wait for Me! are as fascinating and entertaining a portrait of the last century as you could hope to read' -- Sandra Parsons, Daily Mail Christmas books special 'Deborah Devonshire has had an astonishing life and her memoirs are peopled by a cast of characters that includes Winston Churchill, the Queen, John F. Kennedy, Lucian Freud and Elivs Presley ... She's also unusually frank about her late husband's alcoholism. Yet while there's a lot of sadness in this book, there's no self-pity. Instead, you get the impressions that, at 90, Deborah Devonshire's zest for life, gossip and mischief is as strong as ever' -- John Preston, Daily Mail Christmas books special 'Fans will know the story but the duchess's prose is so lively her telling is pure pleasure. I thought all the Mitford books had been written. How wrong I was' -- Independent 'Delightful Debo, the youngest Mitford sister, reminisces with trademark mischief and her killer instinct for a good anecdote' -- The Times 'An unqualified delight: effortlessly funny and at times moving, clear-sighted, candid and self-effacing, written from the perspective of a long life well-lived' -- Good Book Guide
Kurzbeschreibung
Deborah Devonshire is a natural writer with a knack for the telling phrase and for hitting the nail on the head. She tells the story of her upbringing, lovingly and wittily describing her parents (so memorably fictionalised by her sister Nancy); she talks candidly about her brother and sisters, and their politics (while not being at all political herself), finally setting the record straight. Throughout the book she writes brilliantly about the country and her deep attachment to it and those who live and work in it. As Duchess of Devonshire, Debo played an active role in restoring and overseeing the day-to-day running of the family houses and gardens, and in developing commercial enterprises at Chatsworth. She tells poignantly of the deaths of three of her children, as well as her husband's battle with alcohol addiction. Wait For Me is enthralling and a total joy, full of the author's sympathetic wit (which she is not afraid to use on herself).
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250 von 258 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
What is glamour, anyway?
10. November 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe
The cover of the American edition of this book demonstrates, to some degree, the difference between working definitions of glamor in the United States and in England. In the United States... Well, you see from the cover. The English cover shows the Dowager Duchess at her age (90), comfortably -- even proudly -- holding two prize hens. It could be that the covers show something of the difference in expectations readers will have as they wade into this autobiography.
Almost a third of the book deals with the Duchess' life before she married. She describes in detail the Victorian backgrounds of both her parents and what it was like to grow up in an unsentimental household where the birth of another daughter (she is the youngest of six daughters and a lone, prized son) was scarcely greeted with undiluted joy. Armchair psychologists will find much to mine because the descriptions of her family are affectionate, but unvarnished to the point of unsparing. But the Duchess' family was not unique in this respect among members of their socio-economic class. Their circumstances, comparatively reduced for the circles in which they traveled, required a degree of creative economizing, whether in the family's having to move house or in organizing yet another "coming out" for a daughter.
The sketches of her sisters carry overtones of love, but are also stinging and regretful. The Duchess is, keep in mind, one of the legendary Mitford sisters. Among them was a famous novelist and raconteur, another was the whistle blower on the notoriously exploitative American funeral industry (The American Way of Death, still in print), another was an infamous Hitler sympathizer who in fact took occupancy of an apartment in Germany from which a Jewish family had been evicted. If a hint of condescension enters in, perhaps it cannot be helped. The writer was, it could be argued, the most successful of the sisters: in the event, the most long-lived and prosperous. She was also, at least according to her telling, the one to whom others turned when illness and other vicissitudes struck.
Americans for the most part have an idea of dukes and duchesses that is well conveyed (and appealed to) in the portrait chosen for the American book cover. The reality is quite different. The Duchess married a younger son, Andrew Cavendish, who stood to inherit nothing of the status and responsibility of that would be conferred on his elder brother. But World War II changed things with the death of the elder son, William. As a result, her husband inherited a title in a family whose aristocratic roots extend back to the 16th century. He also inherited crushing debt because inheritance tax in post-War Britain was, in effect, confiscatory. Transferring some important works of art to the State and opening Chatsworth to the public were ways of dealing with the debt.
Chatsworth required extensive rehabilitation and renovation, and some of the book deals with an arduous task that might have daunted anyone who truly understood what the job would require. The Duchess became a knowledgeable and effective decorator whose skills have been called upon for projects beyond Chatsworth. The Duchess' country upbringing contributed, too, to her willingness to tackle gardens, livestock, and shooting. These days the latter is an unpopular topic in many quarters, but the Duchess is intransigently unapologetic. Game management is part of country life; perforce hunting is, as well.
Those of us who remember where we were the day Kennedy was shot might be interested in what the Duchess relates in the appendices about her friendship with JFK. She attended both his inauguration and his funeral.
Lest this sound like a life of cosseted privilege, it must be added that the Duke and Duchess experienced the extraordinary sadness of burying more than one baby. Her husband became alcoholic and did not recover on his first attempt. There is much more about which the Duchess writes. Her tone in the telling is far from detached, but completely lacks self-pity.
To this point, I have been describing the story told in this autobiography. My point is that I think it is an interesting life; my intention is not to pass any kind of judgment on it. A review, though, is more than a description. My review of the book is brief. I think it is intelligently written and that the writer turns phrases boldly, but not brashly. She weaves together the many strands of a story almost seamlessly.
At almost 400 pages, it is not a short autobiography so it impressed me that my interest was unflagging. The writing shows wit, acumen, irony, command of many topics (e.g., her "review" of Graceland), and occasionally just a hint of score settling. There is not a great deal of introspection. Whether this suggests a lack of insight might say more about the reader than about the writer.
The photographs represent the sweep of the Duchess' life and fortunes. They illustrate the story and, in a sense, augment it.
I like the genre of contemporary autobiography. This book will remain on my shelf as an exemplar of the genre. And I think I shall return to its stories again and again. For me, that makes it worthy of fully five stars.
Almost a third of the book deals with the Duchess' life before she married. She describes in detail the Victorian backgrounds of both her parents and what it was like to grow up in an unsentimental household where the birth of another daughter (she is the youngest of six daughters and a lone, prized son) was scarcely greeted with undiluted joy. Armchair psychologists will find much to mine because the descriptions of her family are affectionate, but unvarnished to the point of unsparing. But the Duchess' family was not unique in this respect among members of their socio-economic class. Their circumstances, comparatively reduced for the circles in which they traveled, required a degree of creative economizing, whether in the family's having to move house or in organizing yet another "coming out" for a daughter.
The sketches of her sisters carry overtones of love, but are also stinging and regretful. The Duchess is, keep in mind, one of the legendary Mitford sisters. Among them was a famous novelist and raconteur, another was the whistle blower on the notoriously exploitative American funeral industry (The American Way of Death, still in print), another was an infamous Hitler sympathizer who in fact took occupancy of an apartment in Germany from which a Jewish family had been evicted. If a hint of condescension enters in, perhaps it cannot be helped. The writer was, it could be argued, the most successful of the sisters: in the event, the most long-lived and prosperous. She was also, at least according to her telling, the one to whom others turned when illness and other vicissitudes struck.
Americans for the most part have an idea of dukes and duchesses that is well conveyed (and appealed to) in the portrait chosen for the American book cover. The reality is quite different. The Duchess married a younger son, Andrew Cavendish, who stood to inherit nothing of the status and responsibility of that would be conferred on his elder brother. But World War II changed things with the death of the elder son, William. As a result, her husband inherited a title in a family whose aristocratic roots extend back to the 16th century. He also inherited crushing debt because inheritance tax in post-War Britain was, in effect, confiscatory. Transferring some important works of art to the State and opening Chatsworth to the public were ways of dealing with the debt.
Chatsworth required extensive rehabilitation and renovation, and some of the book deals with an arduous task that might have daunted anyone who truly understood what the job would require. The Duchess became a knowledgeable and effective decorator whose skills have been called upon for projects beyond Chatsworth. The Duchess' country upbringing contributed, too, to her willingness to tackle gardens, livestock, and shooting. These days the latter is an unpopular topic in many quarters, but the Duchess is intransigently unapologetic. Game management is part of country life; perforce hunting is, as well.
Those of us who remember where we were the day Kennedy was shot might be interested in what the Duchess relates in the appendices about her friendship with JFK. She attended both his inauguration and his funeral.
Lest this sound like a life of cosseted privilege, it must be added that the Duke and Duchess experienced the extraordinary sadness of burying more than one baby. Her husband became alcoholic and did not recover on his first attempt. There is much more about which the Duchess writes. Her tone in the telling is far from detached, but completely lacks self-pity.
To this point, I have been describing the story told in this autobiography. My point is that I think it is an interesting life; my intention is not to pass any kind of judgment on it. A review, though, is more than a description. My review of the book is brief. I think it is intelligently written and that the writer turns phrases boldly, but not brashly. She weaves together the many strands of a story almost seamlessly.
At almost 400 pages, it is not a short autobiography so it impressed me that my interest was unflagging. The writing shows wit, acumen, irony, command of many topics (e.g., her "review" of Graceland), and occasionally just a hint of score settling. There is not a great deal of introspection. Whether this suggests a lack of insight might say more about the reader than about the writer.
The photographs represent the sweep of the Duchess' life and fortunes. They illustrate the story and, in a sense, augment it.
I like the genre of contemporary autobiography. This book will remain on my shelf as an exemplar of the genre. And I think I shall return to its stories again and again. For me, that makes it worthy of fully five stars.
58 von 62 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Her first 90 years: A life of privilege and purpose, well lived
12. November 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
Her sister Nancy was an acclaimed novelist. Sister Jessica (Decca) was the muckraking journalist who wrote "The American Way of Death." Sister Unity fell in love with Hitler and then shot herself. Sister Diana married the British Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and spent much of World War II in prison. Now Deborah, or Debo as she is known, the youngest and only surviving Mitford sister, tells the story of her life so far, one that may well make her the most famous Mitford sister of all.
Unlike her wicked and witty collection of writings compiled in "Counting My Chickens" that reveals her crush on Elvis, her resistance to book reading and predeliction for buying her clothes at agricultural fairs, "Wait for Me!" which takes its name from a youngest child's constant struggles to catch up with the others, is a book that has the carefully considered weight of history hanging over its every word.
As Duchess of Devonshire, Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish was responsible for seven houses that, in addition to the great British country house, Chatsworth, included Lismore Castle in Ireland where the family spent salmon-season every April and Bolton Abbey where they hosted shooting parties every August. Other times found her shopping the coutourier houses of Paris with a sister or two...going to Carnival in Rio with Aly Kahn and coming home with the gift of one of his horses, the Grand National winner Royal Tan...making a hop across the pond at the invitation of her friend Jack at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, smack dab in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis...assigned to trailing the Queen Mother at an agricultural fair and mixing Her Royal Highness's Dubonnet and gin drinks...playing hostess to "Uncle Harold" Macmillan, the Shah of Persia, Lady Bird, Lynda Bird, Evelyn Waugh, Balenciaga, and Givenchy...developing the entrepreneureal skills that have made Chatsworth thrive...sitting for portraits by world-famous artists that will doubtless hang in the halls of the most famous country house in all of England for generations to come and may one day come to outshine those of the other Devonshire duchesses--even Georgiana, the one played by Keira Knightley in that movie with Ralph Fiennes...and then, as a 90th birthday treat, going to the ballet at Covent Garden as the guest of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall and sitting in the royal box.
What an incredible life she has had. What an incredible woman she is, though one who's seen more than her share of pain--the losses of three babies within hours of their birth, and of her only brother, her brother-in-law and countless friends in World War II and the pure hell of her husband's long, long struggle with the family curse of alcoholism--a story she'd have preferred to omit from this memoir, but could not because he'd already written about it in his. I suspect there's much else she left out. For example, her husband's well known roving eye, which makes its only appearance here during their courtship; also we're told almost nothing about her children, their lives and her relationship with them.
This is a serious and mostly straightforward story of a life, leavened with occasional glimpses of the Dowager Duchess's lighter side. Like the proud admission that she had had the downstairs lavatory in the Old Vicarage where she now lives lined with silver paper and portraits of Elvis. And an offhand comment on one of the more successful products sold at Chatsworth's stall at the Chelsea Flower Show: In addition to garden seats, she writes, "We also did well meeting the revived fashion for wooden lavatory seats, whose middles we made into cheeseboards."
Unlike her wicked and witty collection of writings compiled in "Counting My Chickens" that reveals her crush on Elvis, her resistance to book reading and predeliction for buying her clothes at agricultural fairs, "Wait for Me!" which takes its name from a youngest child's constant struggles to catch up with the others, is a book that has the carefully considered weight of history hanging over its every word.
As Duchess of Devonshire, Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish was responsible for seven houses that, in addition to the great British country house, Chatsworth, included Lismore Castle in Ireland where the family spent salmon-season every April and Bolton Abbey where they hosted shooting parties every August. Other times found her shopping the coutourier houses of Paris with a sister or two...going to Carnival in Rio with Aly Kahn and coming home with the gift of one of his horses, the Grand National winner Royal Tan...making a hop across the pond at the invitation of her friend Jack at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, smack dab in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis...assigned to trailing the Queen Mother at an agricultural fair and mixing Her Royal Highness's Dubonnet and gin drinks...playing hostess to "Uncle Harold" Macmillan, the Shah of Persia, Lady Bird, Lynda Bird, Evelyn Waugh, Balenciaga, and Givenchy...developing the entrepreneureal skills that have made Chatsworth thrive...sitting for portraits by world-famous artists that will doubtless hang in the halls of the most famous country house in all of England for generations to come and may one day come to outshine those of the other Devonshire duchesses--even Georgiana, the one played by Keira Knightley in that movie with Ralph Fiennes...and then, as a 90th birthday treat, going to the ballet at Covent Garden as the guest of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall and sitting in the royal box.
What an incredible life she has had. What an incredible woman she is, though one who's seen more than her share of pain--the losses of three babies within hours of their birth, and of her only brother, her brother-in-law and countless friends in World War II and the pure hell of her husband's long, long struggle with the family curse of alcoholism--a story she'd have preferred to omit from this memoir, but could not because he'd already written about it in his. I suspect there's much else she left out. For example, her husband's well known roving eye, which makes its only appearance here during their courtship; also we're told almost nothing about her children, their lives and her relationship with them.
This is a serious and mostly straightforward story of a life, leavened with occasional glimpses of the Dowager Duchess's lighter side. Like the proud admission that she had had the downstairs lavatory in the Old Vicarage where she now lives lined with silver paper and portraits of Elvis. And an offhand comment on one of the more successful products sold at Chatsworth's stall at the Chelsea Flower Show: In addition to garden seats, she writes, "We also did well meeting the revived fashion for wooden lavatory seats, whose middles we made into cheeseboards."
37 von 40 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Another Mitford Sister Remembers
12. November 2010
Format:Gebundene Ausgabe|Von Amazon bestätigter Kauf
This is a window into a long gone world. We have seen parts of it in the other Mitford sisters books, but Debo takes us on into the world of the busy life of the Duchess, as well. It is interesting to compare the perspectives of the sisters on their family. Debo is very loving toward them all. She does not have the brilliant wit they did and some of this reads a bit like a Christmas letter-nice bits about people you don't know and aren't interested in. I would recommend this for those who are fascinated by the Mitfords, and England as it used to be.
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