Hons and Rebels (New York Review Books Classics)

Wodehouse always averred that he based all his characters (Bertie and chums) on actual characters he had known coming of age in an England roughly contemporaneous with the one Jessica (Decca) Mitford chronicles here. People, even ardent fans, have tended toward the skeptical side regarding Wodehouse's claim. This memoir should lay much of this skepticism to rest. Decca, her sisters and extended family come across as nothing so much as non-fiction Wodehouse - No, not an oxymoron! Above all, this memoir is full of the beauty, eccentricity, insouciance and joy of youth which comes to know sadness and tragedy all too soon.The only way to effectively convey the rum atmosphere of the rural gentry in which Decca was nurtured - now completely vanished from England - is to proffer some select passages. Here, for example, is the family wending their privileged way to the parish church on a typical Sunday:"Every Sunday morning, rain or shine, we stumped off down the hill with Nanny, governess, Miranda, several dogs, Boud's goat, Enid, her pet snake, and my pet dove. Some of the graves in Swinbrook churchyard were conveniently surrounded by high railings for better preservation and privacy. These made good cages for the assorted animals, whose loud yelps, cooing and baaing blended nicely with the lusty voices of the village choir and effectively drowned out most of the ten-minute sermon."And we have eccentric Uncles instead of Wodehouse's eccentric Aunts, but again, real ones:"Uncle Tommy presided as magistrate at the local police court, and in this capacity doled out his own ideas of justice to the local citizenry. He was particularly proud of having given a three months' jail sentence to a woman driver who accidentally ran her car into a cow on a dark night: `Clap `em in the brig! That's one way of keeping these damn' women off the road.'"I'm afraid that such options are no longer open to us, fellows!Of course, most of this book is given to Decca's break with her Wodehousian upbringing, her elopement with Esmond Romilly and ensuing adventures in Spain, the time back in England in the commune on Rotherhithe Street (which, curiously, was the only part of the book which could have been set in England during the 80's when I was an adolescent - just mix in loud music and illicit drugs) and their final idyllic excursion to America. There's a piece on American and British English which is priceless. Americans, you do pronounce your "t" s as "d" s without being aware of it. Don't believe me? - Say "thirty-three" quickly, without thinking! - But that's alright; you remain a much friendlier people and more open society, as Decca and Osmond found.The ending is circumspect, as befits the onset of war and Osmond's death in it. And, of course, there's much to and fro amongst the Mitfords and their biographers about just how scrupulously honest Decca has been here. But the intrepid reader should put such quibbles aside. As Jessica Mitford puts it here:"It is perhaps futile to try to interpret the actions of another - one may be so completely wrong;"And this memoir is so filled with sparkling actions, enchanting circumstances and the wild joys as well as tumbles of any youth worth the having, that I can't imagine any reader not taking delight in it.---I can't think of any laud higher for such a book.

I find the Mitford family very interesting. I chose this book to read more about Jessica's second marriage and later life. Some sections of her child hood repeated much of the information that has been published in other books, but it gave a very good explanation of her side of her elopement. I think as a child, she was the most beautiful daughter. What a family!

Interesting account of a rather eccentric, upper crust British family between the wars, from the standpoint of the glib and observant Communist sister. Worth a read!

For those interested in the Mitford family and Jessica in particular this is a must read. It is full of sometimes touching and other times amusing, but always true, I believe, stories of her family, especially her sisters, friends, and others who cross her path. It gives us an insight into the life and times of an era of British aristocratic family life that is long gone. I also liked the fact that there is an introduction by Christopher Hitchens - a personal favorite.

I first read this many years ago. It stayed with me, too -- it was wonderful to revisit Jessica Mitford's childhood. To go shoplifting at Woolworth's with the comical nanny, save up for running away, and then fall in love and do just that. Products of the aristocracy, she and her young husband, Esmond Romilly, survive poverty and tragedy in London's East End. From there, they flee to a new life to the US just as Europe is dissolving into WWII. Their adventures in NYC and Washington, DC are incredible, and Mitford brings it all to life vividly. As the hyperbolic movie ads used to say, You'll Laugh and You'll Cry.

Jessica Mitford writes an entertaining memoir of a childhood and adolescence in a privileged and opinionated family of the British upper class. The daughters fight for the right of an education and to participate more fully in the world. One sister falls under the spell of the fascists, while the other daughters favor the opposition to the fascists, beginning with the Spanish Republicans. The memoir concludes as she falls in love, elopes with and marries another member of the upper class who has gone to Spain to fight alongside the Republicans.

Decca—What an incredible person and a great writer! I met her at the home of Sol Eidinoff when I was 11 years old; i was visiting my friend, Sol’s daughter, Judy. Our politics are very different, but I recognize a remarkable human being when I meet one.

This book is so evocative of the upper reaches of British society, that it is a delight to read. It is a true life memoir of the childhood and early adult years of a future well-regarded journalist. The portrait of Jessica Mitford's family is captivating -- reminiscent of those madcap movies of the Thirties and Forties, combined with startling revelations about how some in that class of English society (including members of her own family) embraced fascism and rubbed elbows with Hitler. Amid these more shocking admissions, are woven stories and scenes, which capture the feel,and rarified atmosphere of upper class British life. Even the dialogue is wonderful and so in keeping with the sparkling repartee of the Thirties, even when discussing weighty issues. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Me ha gustado porque es ligero, con letra clara y muy entretenido

A well told memoir of an extraordinary family.

Nothing

Eine interessante Familie wird im Rahmen einer spannenden und bewegten Lebensgeschichte humorvoll beschrieben. Jessica Mitford hat ein aufregendes Leben geführt, ihre außergewöhnliche und rebellische Biografie kann ich einem nur ans Herz legen.

A total winner! Highly reccomendable, don't miss the oportunity to spend a nice time reading it and learning about this eccentric family