Loved Ones (book)


Loved Ones is a 1985 collection of pen portraits by Diana Mitford. It was published by Sidgwick & Jackson. In 2008, three of the portraits were republished in the collection, The Pursuit of Laughter.

Synopsis

The book includes pen portraits of leading figures that featured prominently in Mitford's life. These include Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington, former neighbours and friends of hers. Violet Hammersley, an author, close friend of her mother's and prominent figure in childhood. The writer, Evelyn Waugh a close personal friend. Professor Derek Jackson, a leading physicist and her former brother-in-law. Lord Berners, a close personal friend she stayed with often at Faringdon House. Prince and Princess Clary, close friends of hers after the Second World War. The final portrait is of her second husband, Sir Oswald Mosley.
The book also features several photographs of the selected subjects.

Reception

The collection was favourably reviewed by The Glasgow Herald, describing Mosley as ″consistently witty in a generous way that indulges neither in sarcasm nor bitterness and her book contains gems of ever-so-English understatement and Mitfordese snobbery.″

Cover illustration

This illustration features a detail from Henry Lamb's portrait of Mitford, painted in 1932 when she was still married to Bryan Guinness.