Baring the Curzon girls
From Mr Nicholas Mosley Sir: David Gilmour (Books, 28 October) asks why I let my aunt Irene Ravensdale's diaries be seen by Anne de Courcy for her book on the three Curzon daughters. Gilmour is of the school of biographers who think that personal foibles and sadnesses should be kept under wraps; that stories of love affairs are dirty linen. I think it is this attitude that demeans human beings, that falsifies them and makes them boring.
My aunt Irene's diaries are, indeed, often sad, but they give a striking picture of life among people of influence before and dur- ing the second world war. And her story like those of her sisters — is of an initially spoilt and privileged person making heart- felt efforts to find a life that is worthwhile.
It seems to me that it is Gilmour's fastidi- ous horror of what life is actually like that is pathetic.
Nicholas Mosley London NW1
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