Pristine Facts About Nancy Mitford, The Bright Young Thing
Nancy Mitford was the darling of the “Bright Young Things” running around London in between WWI and WWII. Beautiful, moneyed, and intelligent, Nancy looked like she had it all.
But behind her perfect manners and her polite writing, Mitford’s life and family were going to shambles. Soon enough, the whole world would know about her troubles.
1. Her Family Was Famous
In early 20th-century Britain, there were Bluebloods, and then there was Nancy Mitford’s family. Her parents, David Mitford and Sydney Bowles, were well-to-do in the extreme, with David in particular having descended from a line of Barons who had been influential since the Norman invasion of England—AKA, a really long time.
So when they had Nancy, their first child, on November 28, 1904, the world was her oyster. Or, so it looked from the outside.
2. She Was A Spoiled Brat
Having grown up sheltered themselves, Nancy’s parents barely knew what to do with her. Her mother made a mistake that would have lasting consequences. At the time, Sydney believed that children did best if you never got angry at them, much less corrected their mistakes. It resulted in a monster.
Nancy was an only child at the time, and she quickly became utterly spoiled and uncontrollable, prone to selfish tantrums and “red-faced rage”. And it was about to get even more tense.
3. She Was The Jealous Type
The Mitfords would go on to have an impressive seven children (six daughters and one son), and bratty little Nancy did not like that the attention was off her. When she was three and her first sister Pamela was born, the toddling Nancy was indignant at the change in her routine, and Pamela became her main target practice throughout the rest of her adolescence.
Still, the little girl was about to get one rude awakening.
4. Her Fortunes Changed
Within a few short years, Nancy had yet more siblings in her lone brother Tom plus sisters Diana, Unity, and Jessica. But the next years of her life brought a different kind of upheaval. With the outbreak of WWI, the Mitfords had a stunning change of fortune after their uncle died on the front and their grandfather died at home—turning Nancy’s own father into a Baron.
It was enough to mature any young girl quickly…but that’s not quite what happened to Nancy.
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