Nicholas Mosley

For the 16th-century Lord Mayor of London, see Nicholas Mosley (mayor).

Sir Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale, 7th Baronet of Ancoats MC (born 25 June 1923) is a British novelist. He is the eldest son of Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet (an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists) and Lady Cynthia Mosley, a daughter of Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary. Diana Mosley (one of the noted Mitford sisters) was his stepmother.

Life

Born in London, Mosley was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. In World War II he was commissioned in the Rifle Brigade and served in Italy, winning the Military Cross in 1945.

He succeeded as 3rd Baron Ravensdale in 1966 on the death of Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale, his mother's sister. On the death of his father on 3 December 1980, he also succeeded to the Baronetcy. In 1999 he lost his seat in the House of Lords due to the House of Lords Act 1999.

His father, Sir Oswald Mosley, founded the British Union of Fascists in 1932 and was a supporter of Benito Mussolini. Sir Oswald was arrested in 1940 for his antiwar campaigning, and spent the majority of World War II in prison. As an adult, Nicholas was a harsh critic of his father in Beyond the Pale: Sir Oswald Mosley and Family 1933–1980 (1983), calling into question his father's motives and understanding of politics. Nicholas' work contributed to the 1998 Channel 4 television programme titled Mosley based on his father's life. At the end of the mini-series, Nicholas is portrayed meeting his father in prison to ask him about his national allegiance.

Mosley began to stammer as a young boy, and attended weekly sessions with speech therapist Lionel Logue in order to help him overcome the speech disorder. Mosley says his father claimed never really to have noticed his stammer, but feels Sir Oswald may have been less aggressive when speaking to him than he was towards other people as a result.

Nicholas Mosley has been married twice and is the father of five children. He lives in London. He is a half-brother of Max Mosley, former President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a non-profit association that represents the interests of motoring organisations and car users worldwide and is the governing body for Formula One and other international motorsports.

Marriages and children

He married firstly on 14 November 1947 and divorced in 1974 Rosemary Laura Salmond (died 1991), daughter of Sir John Maitland Salmond and Hon. Monica Margaret Grenfell, and had four children:

• Hon. Shaun Nicholas Mosley (born 5 August 1949, died 10 December 2009), married 1978 Theresa Clifford, and had six children:
  • Daniel Nicholas Mosley (born 10 October 1982)
  • Matthew Mosley (born 6 March 1985)
  • Francis Mosley (born 5 July 1988)
  • Aidan Clifford Mosley (born 1991)
  • Thomas Mosley (born 23 December 1993)
  • Monica Mosley (born 5 June 1996)
• Hon. Ivo Adam Rex Mosley (born 14 April 1951), married 10 September 1977 Xanthe Jennifer Grenville Oppenheimer, daughter of Sir Michael Bernard Grenville Oppenheimer, 3rd Baronet, and wife (married 12 July 1947) Laetitia Helen Lucas-Tooth (born 30 December 1926), Bachelor of Philosophy, Master of Arts and Doctor of Divinity, in 2003 living at L'Aiguillon, Rue des Cotils, Grouville, Jersey, daughter of Sir Hugh Vere Huntly Duff Munro-Lucas-Tooth, 1st Baronet, and Laetitia Florence Findlay, and had four children:
  • Nathaniel Inigo Mosley (born 15 June 1982)
  • Felix Harry Mosley (born 16 November 1985)
  • Scipio Louis Mosley (born 7 June 1988)
  • Noah Billy Mosley (born 10 October 1990)
• Hon. Robert Mosley (born 24 December 1955), married 1980 Victoria McBain, and had three children:
  • Gregory Mosley (born 9 May 1981)
  • Orson Mosley (born 6 June 1994)
  • Vija Mosley (born 19 July 1985)
• Hon. Clare Mosley (born 11 November 1959), unmarried, has a natural daughter named Rosie Mosley (born 29 February 1992)

He married secondly in 1974 Verity Elizabeth Raymond, daughter of John Raymond, and had one son:

• Hon. Marius Mosley (born 28 May 1976), unmarried and without issue

Novels

• Spaces of the Dark (1951)
• The Rainbearers (1955)
• Corruption (1957)
• Meeting Place (1962)
• Accident (1965) (filmed in 1967 by Joseph Losey, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter – see Accident (1967 film))
• Assassins (1966)
• Impossible Object (1968) (filmed in 1973 by John Frankenheimer as Story of a Love Story)
• Natalie Natalia (1971)
• Catastrophe Practice (1979) (Part One of the Catastrophe Practice Series)
• Imago Bird (1980) (Part Two of the Catastrophe Practice Series)
• Serpent (1981) (Part Three of the Catastrophe Practice Series)
• Judith (1986) (Part Four of the Catastrophe Practice Series)
• Hopeful Monsters (1990) (Part Five of the Catastrophe Practice Series) – which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
• Children of Darkness and Light (1995)
• The Hesperides Tree (2001)
• Inventing God (2003)
• Look at the Dark (2005)
• God's Hazard (2009)

Non-fiction

• African Switchback (1958)
• The Life of Raymond Raynes (1961)
• The Assassination of Trotsky (1972) (filmed in 1972 by Joseph Losey as The Assassination of Trotsky)
• Julian Grenfell, his life and the times of his death, 1888–1915 (1976) Republished by Persephone Books in 1999
• Rules of the Game: Sir Oswald and Lady Cynthia Mosley 1896-1933 (1982)
• Beyond the Pale: Sir Oswald Mosley and Family 1933-1980 (1983)
• Experiece and Religion (2006)
• The Uses Of Slime Mould – Essays of four Decades (2004)

Autobiography

• Efforts at Truth (1994)
• Time at War (2006)
• Paradoxes of Peace (2009)

Criticism

• Shiva Rahbaran (2010) Nicholas Mosley's Life and Art: A Biography in Six Interviews (London: Dalkey Archive Press)
• Shiva Rahbaran (2007) Paradox of Freedom: A Study of Nicholas Mosley's Intellectual Development in His Novels and Other Writings (London: Dalkey Archive Press)
• John O'Brien (1982) "It's like a story. Nicholas Mosley's impossible object." Review of Contemporary Fiction: 142–148.
• John Banks (1982) "Slight-of-Language" Review of Contemporary Fiction: 118–123.

Footnotes

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Mary Irene Curzon	Baron Ravensdale 1966–present	Incumbent
Baronetage of Great Britain
Preceded by Oswald Mosley	Baronet (of Ancoats) 1980–present	Incumbent