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Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford
Oct. 5th, 2020 12:59 amfrom amazon;
the girls had little formal schooling, the only son was sent trough the typical course of schooling for an english aristocrat, eaton & such. it was amazing that 3 out of 6 girls wrote books, considering their lack of education.
most of the family had leanings towards fascism, or were full on fascists, most supported franco during the spanish civil war. the author, jessica, became a communist. unity became a nazi.
a brief bio on the siblings;
nancy--writer noted for love in a cold climate. i tried reading her biography of madam pompadour & couldn't get into it. divorced, no children.
pamela--spent most of her life on a farm in the english countryside as a companion of an italian horsewoman. divorced, no children, her sister jessica said she was a lesbian.
tom--supported british fascism. posted to burma during ww2 because he refused to fight against germany, killed in action.
diana--married a guinness, as in guinness beer. divorced him and later married the leader of the english fascist party. 4 children.
unity--had that name & the middle name of valkyrie to celebrate the end of ww1. it served her well in germany, where she became friends with hitler. apparently in love with hitler, she did what most of the women did who were & shot herself. she said because she could not bear to see the 2 countries she loved at war. she survived, but died about 7 years later from meningitis caused by the bullet which remained in her brain.
jessica--wrote some books, including the american way of death, an expose of the american funeral parlor business. married twice, first husband killed in ww2. 4 children.
deborah--became duchess of devonshire whe her husband's older brother was killed in ww2. the title duchess of devonshire might be known to you because the older brother was married to kathleen kennedy, sister of JFK. she wrote several books about her husband's home chatsworth. had 7 children but 4 died young.
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.jessica mitford was from an impoverished english aristocratic family, they were related to the churchills, that if they weren't an english aristocratic family would be considered insane. as it was, they were only considered eccentric. her mother must've been one of the original anti-vaxxers. she didn't trust doctors, insisting that "the good body" would heal itself.
the girls had little formal schooling, the only son was sent trough the typical course of schooling for an english aristocrat, eaton & such. it was amazing that 3 out of 6 girls wrote books, considering their lack of education.
most of the family had leanings towards fascism, or were full on fascists, most supported franco during the spanish civil war. the author, jessica, became a communist. unity became a nazi.
a brief bio on the siblings;
nancy--writer noted for love in a cold climate. i tried reading her biography of madam pompadour & couldn't get into it. divorced, no children.
pamela--spent most of her life on a farm in the english countryside as a companion of an italian horsewoman. divorced, no children, her sister jessica said she was a lesbian.
tom--supported british fascism. posted to burma during ww2 because he refused to fight against germany, killed in action.
diana--married a guinness, as in guinness beer. divorced him and later married the leader of the english fascist party. 4 children.
unity--had that name & the middle name of valkyrie to celebrate the end of ww1. it served her well in germany, where she became friends with hitler. apparently in love with hitler, she did what most of the women did who were & shot herself. she said because she could not bear to see the 2 countries she loved at war. she survived, but died about 7 years later from meningitis caused by the bullet which remained in her brain.
jessica--wrote some books, including the american way of death, an expose of the american funeral parlor business. married twice, first husband killed in ww2. 4 children.
deborah--became duchess of devonshire whe her husband's older brother was killed in ww2. the title duchess of devonshire might be known to you because the older brother was married to kathleen kennedy, sister of JFK. she wrote several books about her husband's home chatsworth. had 7 children but 4 died young.
