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

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So this review is for the NYRB Classics Spotlight Series Tour and I’m so glad it motivated me to read Jessica Mitford’s wonderful memoir of growing up in such an eccentric and utterly charming family.

Hons and Rebels | The Society of Hons Jessica Mitford | Hons and Rebels | The Society of Hons

Unity invented a tragic story involving a Pekingese puppy. ‘The telephone bell rang,’ it went. ‘Grandpa got up from his seat and went to answer it. “Lill ill!” he cried . . .’ Lill was on her deathbed, a victim of consumption. Her dying request was that Grandpa should care for her poor little Pekingese. However, in all the excitement of the funeral, the Peke was forgotten, and was found several days later beside his mistress’s grave, dead of starvation and a broken heart.

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Thanks Claire :) I do think one either loves Decca or loves the others (Unity apart), and perhaps it’s difficult to love both? And perhaps that’s because she wasn’t fond of being a Mitford herself a lot of the time. Reply On the day war was declared, Unity went to the Englischer Garten in Munich and shot herself. She survived, but was left with permanent brain damage. Hitler arranged for her to be moved to a hospital in Switzerland, whence her parents collected her. Muv nursed her devotedly, but Farve was so upset he went off with the parlour maid and in effect ended the marriage. The Mosleys were, meanwhile, imprisoned for most of the war, with Decca warmly urging Churchill not to release them. Tom was killed in Burma; Unity died of meningitis in 1948.

Selina Hastings | Jessica Mitford | Slightly Foxed literary

No comparison to Nancy's fiction novels in any sense of literary style or value. But does hold some terrific insight. Jessica is accurate at her estimation of the family being champion haters which concludes this book. All, except Tom. Yup! I’ve borrowed this image from Karyn, who reviewed it here: http://tinyurl.com/qhpbmxc (Hope that’s ok, Karyn!) Hard Cover & Slipcase. Condition: Fine. With Plates (illustrator). First Edition. A Fine copy in likewise slipcase. PLEASE NOTE: I HAVE A VERY LARGE NUMBER OF NEWLY AQUIRED FOLIO SOCIETY BOOKS, INCLUDING MANY OF THE LIMITED EDITIONS. Size: 8vo.Shouldn’t think of it. I hate the beastly Fascists. If you’re going to be one, I’m going to be a Communist, so there.” So Jessica tells us the tale of someone born into privilege, luxury, and uselessness, who finds all of these qualities completely intolerable and who cannot, cannot, cannot endure the idea of the life that is laid out before her. She doesn't know what she believes, but she's sure it's not what her family believes. Mitford] has a most unusual talent for recapturing the past….There is a feeling of immediacy, as if it were all being written on the spot, at the time, by the teen-ager it was happening to. It is a fascinating book.”

Hons and rebels : Jessica Mitford : Free Download, Borrow Hons and rebels : Jessica Mitford : Free Download, Borrow

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. Diana was arrested, in part, because of Nancy, who informed on her Nazi sisters to the British authorities. “She is a ruthless and shrewd egotist, a devoted fascist and admirer of Hitler and sincerely desires the downfall of England and democracy in general,” Nancy told MI5 of Diana. Nancy also warned authorities of her sister Pamela, whom Nancy said was a virulent anti-Semite. Pamela and her husband, Nancy wrote, “had been heard to declare a) that all Jews in England should be killed and b) that the war should be stopped now ‘before we lose any more money.’”But the Cotswolds get even further around as the book progresses – as Decca moves to America. Here’s an example both of her early sheltered life, and the wit with which she writes. It is often a very amusing book. So, are you sitting comfortably, kiddies? Let's start again from the beginning. There's Muv and Farve - Lord Redesdale and his long-suffering wife, Sydney - whose eccentricities we know from Diana's The Pursuit of Love and Jessica's Hons and Rebels. Farve is famous for his temper tantrums and shouting 'Sewer!' at his daughters' boyfriends. Muv is famous for being dotty and believing that 'the Good Body' cures itself; her children have some close shaves with appendicitis. The children consist of six daughters, from Diana the eldest to Debo the youngest, with a son, Tom, somewhere in the middle.