Nancy Mitford a satire on Mosley's fascist "Blackshirt" movement. Mitford herself had briefly flirted with this cause, although her enthusiasm was short-lived and she soon became a vociferous opponent of fascism. When the novel was published in 1935 it made little critical impact, while seriously offending members of her own family, particularly her sisters Diana and Unity, both of whom were supporters of Mosley's movement and devotees of the German dictator Adolf Hitler. Diana eventually forgave her, but the rift with Unity, who was outraged by her depiction in the book as the ridiculous "Eugenia Malmains", was never fully healed. By 1936
Unity Mitford forward among the sisters and in the family, she decided that she was going to form a personality against everything". It has been speculated that Unity turned to Nazism as a way to distinguish herself within the family. As Dalley states: "I think the desire to shock was very important, it was the way that she made herself special. When she discovered Nazism and discovered that it was a fantastic opportunity to shock everybody in England she’d discovered the best tease of all." Her younger sister, Jessica, with whom she shared a bedroom, was a dedicated communist. The two drew