Hons and Rebels: The Mitford Family Memoir (W&N Essentials)

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What I was given I thoroughly enjoyed, but I really did want more, more about the years to come and more about why the couple chose to go to America and not Russia! To me it seemed that many of their actions were inspired more by adolescent rebellion, naivety and a young lovers’ attraction rather than deep political beliefs. Of these six Mitford sisters, three became Nazis, one became a socialist journalist, one a liberal satirical novelist who informed on her Nazi sisters, and one a duchess. Considering the Mitfords now feels like one of those “tag yourself” memes: As global chaos rises and politics become polarized, which one are you? While all her elders were trooping off to Munich, Decca was languishing at home, but not for long. She heard that her cousin, Esmond Romilly, had run away from school to fight with the Communists in the Spanish Civil War and the next year, 1937, she eloped with him. She was 19, he 18, and the fact that he was Churchill's nephew made for gratifying headlines. The memoir is chopped short at this point, when her husband leaves for Canada to enlist, having ensconced his pregnant wife in the home of some wealthy Americans (on whom she also looks down) who don't quite realise she is being foisted on them for the duration. One wonders how long the marriage would have lasted if he had returned from the front. Relations with her English family remained complex – relatively peaceful over the years with Nancy, Debo and Pam, unrelentingly hostile towards Unity, who died in 1948, and towards Diana, whose fascist sympathies she was unable to forgive. After the success of Hons and Rebels, Decca wrote several more books, including The American Way of Death, an investigation into the deceptions and dishonesty of the funeral industry. But it is Hons and Rebels for which she rightly remains best known, a remarkable portrait of an eccentric family depicted by one of its most eccentric members.

Rereading: Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford review — a

So it should be very exciting to read the story of her growing up. Jessica had a very large family, and her sisters were all just as notorious and exciting as she was in different ways. But not all of them were as smart about the world. Diana fell in love with Oswald Moseley, the English fascist, and was ostracized from polite society as a traitor for most of her life. Unity's fate was even more horrific, she fell in love with Adolph Hitler, became a fanatical "Jew-hater" (in her own words) and then tried to kill herself when England declared war on Nazi Germany. In a ghastly accident, the bullet lodged in her head and she became permanently brain-damaged, only to die several years later. Oh Simon, I’m glad you read it. I’m sorry you were expecting more Mitfords. But surely there is enough Mitford stuff out there to keep you satisfied? By the time I finished Letters Between Six Sisters, I felt I’d had more than enough (probably because once Nancy and Decca died, the letters were almost entirely Debo and Diana). the story of Jessica Mitford’s struggles makes tumultous and rewarding reading, and I recommend it heartily.” First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.We [...] were informed to our surprise that even in the middle of a civil war people under the age of [21] could not get married without their parents' consent. Some anarchists we met in a café offered the services of a priest they had taken prisoner ("We could find ways of making him do it," they said), but it would have meant a two-day journey and we weren't sure just how legal such a marriage would prove to be. When war comes it destroys everything, but Linda maintains no regrets. “Don’t pity me,” she tells her best friend and cousin, Fanny. “I’ve had eleven months of perfect and unalloyed happiness, very few people can say that, in the course of long long lives, I imagine.” So it should be very exciting to read the story of her growing up. Jessica had a very large family, and her sisters were all just as notorious and exciting as she was in different ways. But not all of them were Leni Riefenstahl claims that Hitler told her he could never have an intimate relationship with a foreigner. But he was obviously very fond of Unity; he called her 'Kind' (child) and took her to Bayreuth. Moreover, he was happy to meet the various members of her family who came on visits; they were all duly charmed, except Farve, who persisted in referring to Nazis as 'a murderous gang of pests'. Diana, of course, had her own reasons for cultivating Hitler - he was guest of honour at her wedding to Oswald Mosley in 1936 - but these will have to wait for a posthumous historian.

The new Pursuit of Love TV show means it’s time to - Vox

I *think* A Fine Old Conflict is supposed to cover the next period in her life, but couldn’t swear to it… Reply

It’s no secret that I’m a longstanding fan of the Mitfords – or, at least, of reading about them. Debo has an eternal place in my heart, but, even though none of the others quite made it there, I still adored reading the letters between all six sisters. The one whom I didn’t much like (besides Unity, obvs, though her regression after shooting herself is fascinating to see in letter-form) was Jessica. I was chastised. I was told I should read her letters and her books, and that thus I would come to like her more. Finally – FINALLY – I have read Hons and Rebels (1960). Do I like her more? Maybe.