Hitler groupies’ sexual appetites

Over to 5x15 at the Tabernacle last night where, in her 15-minute speaking slot, Rachel Johnson managed to impugn the reputations of all the English girls who’d spent their time partying, skiing and learning German in Bavaria in the Thirties, revolving around the circle of Hitler groupie Unity Mitford.

It wasn’t the dubious political milieu, however, but their morality which Johnson called into question.

Johnson, whose novel Winter Games is set in that era, said most veterans she’d spoken to for research said they didn’t even know the facts of life.

She’s since been put right by Unity Mitford biographer David Pryce-Jones. “They had a different squaddie every night, apparently,” she said. “The leather boots and gloves did it.”