''Wigs on the Green'' is a 1935 satirical novel by

Nancy Mitford Nancy Freeman-Mitford (28 November 1904 – 30 June 1973), known as Nancy Mitford, was an English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "bright young things" on the London ...

. A

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship be ...

, it is notable for lampooning British fascism, specifically political enthusiasms of Mitford's sisters

Unity Mitford Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948) was a British socialite, known for her relationship with Adolf Hitler. Both in Great Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism, fascism and antisemitism, and belo ...

and Diana Mosley.

Background

Using her sisters' wild fervour for fascism (and, in Unity's case,

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

) as fodder for her satire, Mitford centred her plot around the character of Captain Jack (based on Sir

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

, her sister Diana's future husband), the leader of the Union Jackshirts (based on the British Union of Fascists), and Eugenia Malmains (based on Mitford's sister Unity.) Always fond of cruel teasing, she was taken aback when Diana Mitford took offence to the novel and tried to placate her sister by excising the three chapters that dealt directly with the Captain Jack character. The novel still created a deep rift between the sisters. When asked to republish the book after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Mitford declined. The book was never republished in her lifetime, but 2010 saw its first reprint in the United Kingdom and the United States in more than 35 years.

External links

The Official Nancy Mitford Website
1935 British novels Anti-fascist books British satirical novels Novels by Nancy Mitford {{1930s-satirical-novel-stub fr:À la poursuite de l'amour