Not mine. Adam tipped me off about a fascinating Radio 4 documentary about the women who supported Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (the Blackshirts), the biggest (c. 50,000 members) British nazi group of the 1930s and early 40s. I know a fair amount about the many members of the aristocracy who were fascists, and plenty about the working- and middle-class men, but the women's stories have been overlooked.
Turns out that the BUF's forerunners, such as the Fascisti, were founded by women, often politicised by the suffrage movement, which split between socialists, liberals and conservatives fairly early on.
Showing posts with label BUF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BUF. Show all posts
Monday, 4 January 2010
Friday, 20 February 2009
Gentle Readers: feed my habit
Given the t'web is global, and I'm getting readers from all over the world, I thought I'd ask you for help. I'm looking for a book (friends may not be overly-shocked by this announcement). It is Nancy Mitford's Wigs on the Green (1934), republished together with Highland Fling in the mid-1970s. Wigs is a satire about the British Union of Fascists, and she withdrew it when her sister Diana objected (Diana married Oswald Mosley, leader of the BUF).
Nancy clearly didn't think much of either of them - she wrote to Churchill (a family acquaintance) objecting to the Mosleys' release from prison mid-way through the war. However, the book remained unavailable until this one 1970s reprint - and I can't find a copy anywhere. Tried Amazon, tried ABE etc. etc. If you see a copy, buy it, steal it, scan it - I'm planning a piece on satirical treatments of the BUF - Wodehouse (not entirely innocent himself), lampooned Mosley in a Jeeves novel as leader of the Union Jackshorts - all the more distinctive garments had already been bagged by other groups).
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