The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Editor’s note: This book review and its source material may contain triggering content for some readers. The real-life events that are described in this book center around the European political climate of the 1930s — many of the people in this book were swept up in fascist and communist political actions. Please note that, in reading and reviewing this book, I am in no way advocating the vicious and atrocious political viewpoints held by members of the Mitford family. This book contains content warnings for Nazism, anti-Semitism, Fascism and suicide.

Publisher’s Synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an explosive novel of history's most notorious sisters, one of whom will have to choose: her country or her family?

Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters — each more beautiful, brilliant, and eccentric than the next — dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they've weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister's lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she's become Hitler's mistress.

As the Nazis rise in power, novelist Nancy Mitford grows suspicious of her sisters' constant visits to Germany and the high-ranking fascist company they keep. When she overhears alarming conversations and uncovers disquieting documents, Nancy must make excruciating choices as Great Britain goes to war with Germany.

Probing the torrid political climate in the lead-up to World War II and the ways that seemingly sensible people can be sucked into radical action, The Mitford Affair follows Nancy's valiant efforts to stop the Nazis from taking over Great Britain, and the complicated choices she must make between the personal and the political.

HerKentucky Review: Oh, wow. There is so much to unpack with The Mitford Affair. These women (and their ill-fated brother, Tom) were celebrity socialites of 1930s England. They were beautiful, and brilliant, and witty, and they garnered plenty of media attention. Their novels and memoirs were full of nicknames and bon mots and secret languages and in-jokes. Their father held a peerage title and they were cousins-by-marriage to Winston Churchill. It’s quite easy to get caught up in their mystique and mythology; one feels a little more clever simply by reading of their adventures. And yet…

And yet you can’t deny the fact that three of the six sisters were political fanatics. Diana and Unity were caught up in Europe’s burgeoning fascist movement. Diana actively fought to bring fascist rule to England, and Unity literally stalked Hitler. Jessica chose communism over her family. As the narrative of The Mitford Affair unfolds, we learn that Nancy chooses to turn Diana’s political documents over to the British authorities. As I read Ms. Benedict’s account of the Mitford sisters’ political conflicts, I couldn’t help thinking of the political climate of modern America, and the ways that so many people are getting caught up in often-dangerous political rhetoric. If I learned anything in four years of undergraduate political science studies, it’s that there will always be dangerous ideologies to adopt, and there will always be people who find these ideologies thrilling and fascinating.

The Mitford Affair is a fantastic introduction to the famed Mitford sisters, presenting the reader with a concise understanding of the socioeconomic and political dynamics of the day. Ms. Benedict does tend to present Diana somewhat as a victim of infatuation more than a political entity in her own right; I honestly don’t know if this is a true depiction. The same could be said of the author’s treatment of Unity — was she an impressionable young woman who fell blindly into Hitler-worship or was she truly a believer in the Nazi cause? Ms. Benedict does a nice job of writing about these women in a way that both captures their charms and looks unflinchingly at their reprehensible actions. I definitely recommend this book — with strong consideration to content warnings — to anyone who’s interested in learning more about the storied Mitford family.

Purchase The Mitford Affair on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Please note that I received an Advanced Review Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of this work. This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

Wise Gals: the Spies who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage by Nathalia Holt

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humor and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels. They were smart, courageous, and groundbreaking agents at the top of their class, instrumental in both developing innovative tools for intelligence gathering—and insisting (in their own unique ways) that they receive the credit and pay their expertise deserved.

Throughout the Cold War era, each woman had a vital role to play on the international stage. Adelaide rose through the ranks, developing new cryptosystems that advanced how spies communicate with each other. Mary worked overseas in Europe and Asia, building partnerships and allegiances that would last decades. Elizabeth would risk her life in the Middle East in order to gain intelligence on deadly Soviet weaponry. Eloise would wield influence on scientific and technical operations worldwide, ultimately exposing global terrorism threats. Through their friendship and shared sense of purpose, they rose to positions of power and were able to make real change in a traditionally “male, pale, and Yale” organization—but not without some tragic losses and real heartache along the way.

Meticulously researched and beautifully told, Holt uses firsthand interviews with past and present officials and declassified government documents to uncover the stories of these four inspirational women. Wise Gals sheds a light on the untold history of the women whose daring foreign intrigues, domestic persistence, and fighting spirit have been and continue to be instrumental to our country’s security.

HerKentucky Review: Wise Gals is a fascinating and painstakingly researched history of the women of the OSS and, later, the CIA. Ms. Holt details the stories of these agents’ lives of espionage and service while detailing their struggle for equality within the agency. It’s a fascinating look at how a core group of female agents impacted the future of the CIA and, ultimately, the history of our nation.

Wise Gals is impressive in its scope, spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s, and telling the stories of four groundbreaking women. Due to the nature of these women’s work, it is necessary to quickly recap major world events. At times, the narrative becomes lost in details of complex situations like the Cuban Missile Crisis or the Iraqi Revolution. At times, the author tends to refer to players who are never again referenced or to end a paragraph with a thread of foreshadowing that seems a little too neatly tied. In all, this was a very enjoyable and informative work that I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys 20th century history, stories of boot-on-the-ground second wave feminists, or stories of espionage.

Purchase Wise Gals on Amazon or Bookshop.org.

Please note that I received an Advanced Review Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of this work. This review contains affiliate links; I will receive a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post. This commission does not impact the purchase price of the item.

Madam Belle: Sex, Money and Influence in a Southern Brothel by Maryjean Wall

HerKentucky Whiskey Glass Rating: 🥃🥃🥃

Publisher’s synopsis: Belle Brezing made a major career move when she stepped off the streets of Lexington, Kentucky, and into Jennie Hill's bawdy house―an upscale brothel run out of a former residence of Mary Todd Lincoln. At nineteen, Brezing was already infamous as a youth steeped in death, sex, drugs, and scandal. But it was in Miss Hill's "respectable" establishment that she began to acquire the skills, manners, and business contacts that allowed her to ascend to power and influence as an internationally known madam.

In this revealing book, Maryjean Wall offers a tantalizing true story of vice and power in the Gilded Age South, as told through the life and times of the notorious Miss Belle. After years on the streets and working for Hill, Belle Brezing borrowed enough money to set up her own establishment―her wealth and fame growing alongside the booming popularity of horse racing. Soon, her houses were known internationally, and powerful patrons from the industrial cities of the Northeast courted her in the lavish parlors of her gilt-and-mirror mansion.

Secrecy was a moral code in the sequestered demimonde of prostitution in Victorian America, so little has been written about the Southern madam credited with inspiring the character Belle Watling in Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. Following Brezing from her birth amid the ruins of the Civil War to the height of her scarlet fame and beyond, Wall uses her story to explore a wider world of sex, business, politics, and power. The result is a scintillating tale that is as enthralling as any fiction.

HerKentucky review:

If you've spent any time at all in Lexington, then you've certainly met at least one person who considers herself a "Belle Enthusiast" -- someone who simply can't get enough of the legend of Miss Belle Brezing.

Belle was, of course, a Lexington madam of the late 19th and early 20th century whose shrewd business sense and commitment to opulence and decorum led to the establishment of what was widely known as "The Most Orderly of Disorderly Houses." Widely believed to be the inspiration for the Belle Watling character in Gone with the Wind, Belle rose from humble beginnings to own a successful brothel that was frequented by judges, horse breeders, and society gentlemen of the day. I count myself among the Belle Enthusiasts who are fascinated by her life story, so I was excited to get my hands on the latest Belle biography, Maryjean Wall's Madam Belle: Sex, Money, and Influence in a Southern Brothel. 

Ms. Wall, who covered the turf beat for the Lexington Herald-Leader for nearly four decades, brings a well-researched account of Lexington in the 1880s and 1890s. Her work brings an interesting perspective of the era's horse business to Belle's story. However, with little new information about Belle and a wealth of stories about seemingly peripheral racing stories, the book functions better as a history of Lexington than as a Belle Brezing biography. The knowledgeable Belle enthusiast will find little new information in this work, with much of the story devoted to pedantic details found in receipt books and a heavy reliance on Buddy Thompson's seminal Brezing biography, Madam Belle Brezing. [Ed. note: my college bookstore stocked a few copies of Thompson's book when I was matriculating there. I always meant to buy it but at the time, list price seemed exorbitant; now it's impossible to find a copy of the long-out-of-print work for under $70...]

I found myself simply wanting to like this book far more than I actually did. There was little new information and Ms. Wall's text is cumbersome. The language which the author employs is particularly problematic. The overuse of "demimonde" adds an aura of pretension, while the repeated referral to Ms. Brezing's employees as "whores" undermines the commonly-held (and seemingly accepted by the author) conceit that Belle was a sharp businesswoman who added a touch of elegance to her enterprise. The historical context of Kentucky horsemen often seems forced, bringing awkward phrases like "But [Belle's] opening night gala still lay in the future on that Derby night of 1890" or the reference to 1890s thoroughbred horses as "four-legged Ferarris." [Driver Enzo Ferrari was not born until 1898, and his eponymous sports car company was founded in 1929.] At times, I simply found myself wondering where the point lay in Ms. Wall's exercise.

For this reader, Ms. Wall's most interesting addition to the Belle Canon is an anecdote regarding Belle's final days. Aging, alone, and fighting a morphine addiction, Belle found herself in the frequent care of James Herndon, an orderly at Lexington's St. Joseph Hospital. Mr. Herndon is perhaps better known as Lexington's original drag queen, Miss Sweet Evening Breeze; it's fascinating to imagine how this connection kept the Belle legend alive in Lexington. Ms. Wall's quote of Lexington artist Bob Morgan, who says "All the old queens loved Belle. She was powerful and a sexual outlaw..." tells a fascinating story of gender politics and historical interpretation. I found myself wishing that this storyline had been better developed, with less emphasis on the same perusal of auction records that appears in every Belle timeline.

Madam Belle adds little to the body of Belle writing. I would recommend it only for those who are new to the Belle legend or who are interested in an overview of the vices of historical Lexington.