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Hons and Rebels - Jessica Mitford, Christopher Hitchens
Hons and Rebels
by: (author) (author)
4.06 90
Jessica Mitford, the great muckraking journalist, was part of a legendary English aristocratic family. Her sisters included Nancy, doyenne of the 1920s London smart set and a noted novelist and biographer; Diana, wife to the English fascist chief Sir Oswald Mosley; Unity, who fell head over in... show more
Jessica Mitford, the great muckraking journalist, was part of a legendary English aristocratic family. Her sisters included Nancy, doyenne of the 1920s London smart set and a noted novelist and biographer; Diana, wife to the English fascist chief Sir Oswald Mosley; Unity, who fell head over in heels in love with Hitler; and Deborah, later the Duchess of Devonshire. Jessica swung left and moved to America, where she took part in the civil rights movement and wrote her classic exposé of the undertaking business, The American Way of Death.Hons and Rebels is the hugely entertaining tale of Mitford's upbringing, which was, as she dryly remarks, “not exactly conventional. . . Debo spent silent hours in the chicken house learning to do an exact imitation of the look of pained concentration that comes over a hen's face when it is laying an egg. . . . Unity and I made up a complete language called Boudledidge, unintelligible to any but ourselves, in which we translated various dirty songs (for safe singing in front of the grown-ups).” But Mitford found her family's world as smothering as it was singular and, determined to escape it, she eloped with Esmond Romilly, Churchill's nephew, to go fight in the Spanish Civil War. The ensuing scandal, in which a British destroyer was dispatched to recover the two truants, inspires some of Mitford's funniest, and most pointed, pages.A family portrait, a tale of youthful folly and high-spirited adventure, a study in social history, a love story, Hons and Rebels is a delightful contribution to the autobiographer's art.
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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9781590171103 (1590171101)
ASIN: 1590171101
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Pages no: 284
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
What I Happen to Be Reading At the Moment
What I Happen to Be Reading At the Moment rated it
5.0
Jessica Mitford's sarcastic and witty tone is directed at her own family in her memoir, Hons and Rebels, of her life growing up in aristocratic English family during the 1920's and 30's. Her upbringing, education by governesses, and adventures with her large family (including some very eccentric sis...
Nigeyb
Nigeyb rated it
Wonderful book. Poignant, insightful, interesting - and left me wanting to find out more about [a:Jessica Mitford|24401|Jessica Mitford|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1196207252p2/24401.jpg]. I have purchased [b:Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford|112827|Decca The Letters of Jessica Mitford|Jes...
Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud
Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud rated it
4.0
Rating: 4.25* of fiveI fastened on this at a liberry sale I went to recently, remembering that some fellow LTer was on a Mitford Girls kick. I was inspired to buy it by its ten cent price and also its ghastly, 60s-Penguin "artwork" cover. I like that it says "3/6" for a price, so exotic and incompre...
Reflections
Reflections rated it
4.0 Daughters and Rebels: An Autobiography
Though she was born into a wonderfully eccentric upper class English family, Jessica Mitford was set on escaping--she started a "running away" savings account at Drummond's Bank in London when she was twelve. At nineteen she eloped with her rebel cousin and they ran away together to the Spanish Civi...
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