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7th out of 11 books
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5 voters
Hons and Rebels
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...more
Paperback, 284 pages
Published
September 30th 2004
by NYRB Classics
(first published 1960)
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Sep 04, 2007
Stephanie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anybody who'd love to kick Hitler's ass
Like J.K. Rowling, I worship Jessica "Decca" Mitford. If I had a daughter, I'd name her after Jessica, who was born into an aristocratic family, ran away with her hunky Communist cousin to fight in the Spanish Civil War, emigrated to the United States without a penny, and became a muckraking journalist with no formal schooling. My mouth was agape the entire time I read HONS AND REBELS...it seemed incredible that Mitford's story wasn't fiction. She devoted her life to fighting fascism, even while...more
Having read The Mitford Sisters some years ago and been recommended to read this I sat down with a great deal of enthusiasm but was disappointed. Perhaps it is the class divide that made this book so annoying and the jolly scrapes these sisters found themselves in, some with mad, bad and fairly dangerous to know types e.g. Adolf Hitler. If they hadn't been upper class and steeped in privilege would we be treat them with the same degree of fascination and would their escapades be interesting at a...more
I'm in a the midst of another bout of Mitford mania, which is something I come down with every five years or so. Maybe it is because I just finished reading The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate but I did not enjoy Jessica's more realistic take on things in her autobiography Hons and Rebels.
Let me rephrase that. I enjoyed the first half of Hons and Rebels decently enough. It was interesting to hear from Jessica's point of view as one of the younger Mitford girls and she did have a diff...more
Let me rephrase that. I enjoyed the first half of Hons and Rebels decently enough. It was interesting to hear from Jessica's point of view as one of the younger Mitford girls and she did have a diff...more
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 sisters) are right out of a 19th century novel for girls, or a PBS period drama. At the same time, Jessica is growing up when her parents strongly believe in the old-fashioned perspectives of the English...more
According to Mitford, the Society of Hons that she and her sisters formed derived not from their aristocratic titles (Honourable) but from the Hens the family kept (the H of Hons is pronounced, as in Hens). Her autobiography is an enthralling picture of some of the real people behind the characters in Nancy Mitford's novels. The Mitfords were minor aristocracy, the family headed by larger-than-life Lord Redesdale, who seems to have hated just about everyone. Neither he nor his wife believed in e...more
Rating: 4.25* of five
I 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 incomprehensible. And also, The American Way of Death made a **huge** impression on me as a boy, so I wanted to know more about Miss Mitford.
Oh, the joys of being in a master's hands. Mitford dashes off, appa...more
I 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 incomprehensible. And also, The American Way of Death made a **huge** impression on me as a boy, so I wanted to know more about Miss Mitford.
Oh, the joys of being in a master's hands. Mitford dashes off, appa...more
Witty and smart -- but maybe a little lacking in heart.
It's hard not to like Jessica Mitford. She was born into a world of aristocratic privilege in England, became a Communist, moved to America, and spent her whole life fighting against racism, sexism, and religious hypocrisy. She was as fearless standing up to Klansmen in Mississippi as she was standing up to Brownshirts and Blackshirts in Europe.
So it should be very exciting to read the story of her growing up. Jessica had a very large famil...more
It's hard not to like Jessica Mitford. She was born into a world of aristocratic privilege in England, became a Communist, moved to America, and spent her whole life fighting against racism, sexism, and religious hypocrisy. She was as fearless standing up to Klansmen in Mississippi as she was standing up to Brownshirts and Blackshirts in Europe.
So it should be very exciting to read the story of her growing up. Jessica had a very large famil...more
Another Christmas present! Wow! Jessica Mitford, an English blue-blood, writes of her early years on a baronial estate in England. Considering that she and her siblings had no early education and then went to private school; had nannies and housekeepers and someone to pack their underwear in tissue when they traveled and didn't really know how to cook, they all made their way in the world with a BANG. The intracacies of English aristocracy with its hideous class system rankled Mitford early. She...more
It's quite surprising that I hadn't read this book before - as I have become a little addicted to reading about the mad bad Mitfords. This is a really well written, funny memoir from one of those infamous sisters. If anyone asked me who my favourite Mitford was it would be Nancy every time, the most fascinating was Diana, but the one I would have most likely liked in real life - would have been Jessica. Her warmth and likability come across strongly in this book, and she was able to poke gentle...more
1 like · like · see review
Jessica Mitford's memoir of growing up in a thoroughly eccentric upper-class British family is an engaging read. Allowed little exposure to the world outside their home, the Mitford sisters created their own world, including development of their own language (hence the "hons" of the title)so that the adults would not know what they were saying. Mitford was increasingly bored with her stilted existence and describes being a debutante in the most unattractive terms. Gradually learning about the la...more
My favorite part about this book was the author's description of her childhood. Her family was delightfully quirky and snobby. I also enjoyed the section about Mitford and her husband selling stockings. However, I did not enjoy most of the parts that involved her relationship with her husband. I have a feeling I would not have liked her husband much. He seemed to have a dilettantish interest in fascism and social justice, and really struck me as being sort of naive and clueless.
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My rating of three stars does not by any means reflect how glad I am that I read this. As a memoir of the Mitfords it is limited (Decca has very little to say about certain siblings and I get the impression her difficult relationship with her family significantly restricted what she felt comfortable saying about them). However, as a memoir of a girl rebel who refused to accept the privileged life that was (conditionally) handed to her on a plate, this autobiography succeeds. That said, the tales...more
This book reads like a love letter to Esmond Romilly...seen through rose tinted glasses of the past and of a first love.
I tried reading this book once before, but struggled to get past the sheer selfishness of both Decca and Esmond. When I first read this book I disliked both intensely, despising Esmond for driving a wedge between Decca and her family, and Decca for being so complacent.
However, I recently read the collection of letters between the 6 sisters and gained more respect for Decca.
I...more
I tried reading this book once before, but struggled to get past the sheer selfishness of both Decca and Esmond. When I first read this book I disliked both intensely, despising Esmond for driving a wedge between Decca and her family, and Decca for being so complacent.
However, I recently read the collection of letters between the 6 sisters and gained more respect for Decca.
I...more
Possibly my all-time favorite book. Jessica Mitford grew up in a genteel but somewhat crazy family in the English countryside. She went on to become a Socialist and a muckraking reporter; her sister Nancy mocked the aristocracy in a series of satirical novels, and two other sisters became Nazis and members of Hitler's inner circle. Her account of their childhood world is fascinating and hilarious and reminds me a little of my own odd family.
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Jessica Mitford was the "Ballroom Communist" of the engagingly eccentric Mitford Family. The second youngest daughter of the 2nd Baron Redesdalee, she had an unconventional upbringing where education was the bare minimum to make a good wife. Always wishing for an escape from her family, be it through schooling or politics or moving to another continent, she suffered through being a deb and presentation before the queen and watching her family come apart at the seems due to adivergence in beliefs...more
A spotty memoir that glides over much of the author's early life while providing details on some seemingly random episodes. The picture of her wacky childhood is charmingly told albeit somewhat terrifying to contemplate - I could have used more about each Mitford sister and more insight into how this teeming brood of aristos wound up careening off in wildly different directions. After a gripping tale of Decca's escape to Civil War Spain with her cousin, the teenaged antifascist Esmond Romilly, t...more
I have to say I'm rapidly falling prey to Mitford mania, to the point where I've spent the last twenty minutes listing call numbers to check next time I'm at the library (i.e. in a half hour or so). Decca's prose is funny and wry, yet straightforward, making this autobiography approachable and quick. I was actually a little surprised by the short length until I realized she stopped the story at about age twenty; then it made sense.
The mix of political/historical content with family relationship...more
The mix of political/historical content with family relationship...more
One could not write fiction that contains the members of the Mitford clan and make it seem believable.
Jessica (Decca) Mitford, author of this autobiography of herself and her family, creates a very funny portrait of her famous and eccentric family. Raised with little formal education the children developed their own language and vivid childhood games yet too widely divergent paths in adulthood.
Her elder sister Nancy was a well-known novelist, another sister married a prominent British Fascist,...more
Jessica (Decca) Mitford, author of this autobiography of herself and her family, creates a very funny portrait of her famous and eccentric family. Raised with little formal education the children developed their own language and vivid childhood games yet too widely divergent paths in adulthood.
Her elder sister Nancy was a well-known novelist, another sister married a prominent British Fascist,...more
Jessica Mitford’s memoir takes the reader from her childhood, the fifth daughter in a large, eccentric, aristocratic family in early 20th century England, to her young adulthood as a socialist in Europe and then the United States. The Mitford sisters were notorious in their time. Nancy, the eldest, became a well-known novelist, frequently satirizing her own family, Diana married Britain’s fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, and Unity fell in love with Hitler, adopting his views to the letter, hal...more
It's truly difficult not to like Jessica Mitford for her wit and spirit of adventure. What I find so fascinating in reading about her life (and her family in general) is what it must have been like to be on the younger end of the bright young people and how they dealt with the change of oncoming war. Not only that, but Jessica's desire to rebel against the norm, against the way of life decided for her rather than her choice of it. Her wit and sense of understatement are really wonderful. The pai...more
As part of the notorious Mitford family, an upper-crust British clan whose eccentricity may seem exaggerated through Jessica's dry and satiric tone but was apparently fairly accurate, Jessica has some stories to tell. Jessica documents her growing-up years with her wildly different sisters and odd parents (with the same kind of witty brilliance as Gerald Durrell); she tells of running away with Esmond Romilly, black-sheep, brilliant nephew to Winston Churchill and their eventual marriage and nom...more
Jessica Mitford's dashing and dramatic life story is almost too good to be true from a biography standpoint--and she's so utterly appealing that I think I have a bit of crush on her. Aristocratic and hilariously eccentric upbringing, one of the famous/infamous Mitford sisters (their number including a noted writer in Nancy, not one but TWO Nazis, and a communist--that's Jessica), elopement with her dreamy second cousin and their travels to go fight in the Spanish Civil War, emmigrating to Americ...more
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I've been fascinated by the Mitford Sisters for a long time, even more so since reading Mary S Lovell's The Mitford Girls a few months ago. Jessica (Decca) was the one I really fell for; unlike Diana and Unity who had an unswerving allegiance to fascism (and Hitler) despite all the evidence that it/he were vile, Decca was able to reassess her extreme left leanings, see some shortcomings and not be afraid to admit them..
If Mary Lovell is to be believed then you need to take what Decca writes in...more
If Mary Lovell is to be believed then you need to take what Decca writes in...more
A very funny and good insight into one of Britains most famous families of the 1920's/30's.
They grew up in a very eccentric household, with 6 girls and a son, sibling rivalry runs high.
The relationships between the girls is very interesting especially as the age diffenrnces between them were huge.
They were all very different, which culminated in extrodianry political differences and wild scandalous lives that were constantly in the British tabloids.
However this is a rather onesided view of them...more
They grew up in a very eccentric household, with 6 girls and a son, sibling rivalry runs high.
The relationships between the girls is very interesting especially as the age diffenrnces between them were huge.
They were all very different, which culminated in extrodianry political differences and wild scandalous lives that were constantly in the British tabloids.
However this is a rather onesided view of them...more
After reading Nancy Mitford's books, Hons and Rebels was my first foray into biographies of the Mitford clan.
Jessica Mitford's pen is a sharp and witty as Nancy's, and her memoirs of her life as a child and young adult read like fiction (which, according to the accounts of her sisters, at times are). She presents her family members with humor and brings to life her childhood at Swinbrook. As I expected that to be the most interesting part of the book, I was pleasantly surprised with how fascina...more
Jessica Mitford's pen is a sharp and witty as Nancy's, and her memoirs of her life as a child and young adult read like fiction (which, according to the accounts of her sisters, at times are). She presents her family members with humor and brings to life her childhood at Swinbrook. As I expected that to be the most interesting part of the book, I was pleasantly surprised with how fascina...more
Most of the reviews on the back of the book talked about how funny it was - well! In a way, yes, and there certainly were funny parts (especially the descriptions of her father) - but wow, mostly this book was about some pretty heavy things. Decca writes with a light hand, and so perhaps it doesn't seem as serious, but I was blown away by some of the craziness she went though. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of the uncertainty surrounding Hitler and his intentions before the war broke out - the stor...more
I kept checking the window for the UPS delivery of this book and tore into it the moment it came. It exceeded my expectations and the sensation that Mitford was a long-lost old friend deepened. The love story between herself and Esmond Romilly is absolutely fantastic, and so is the inside look at all the dismal shortcomings of English aristocratic country life and the on-the-ground view of the events and politics that lead up to Britain's entry into World War II. Once again stuck between not wan...more
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 Civil War--an event that was Huge Big News at the time. Two of her sisters were friends with Hitler, and on hearing what Jessica had done even the poster child for evil was scandalized. (Well, that might...more
Feb 27, 2008
Josie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Josie by:
katie
Shelves:
non-fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Another one I reread for my reading group - brilliant to consider alongside the highly autobiographical Love in a Cold Climate. I like Jessica best of the Mitfords for obvious reasons. I find her retrospective on her emerging socialism most interesting - and the story of her and Esmond (very sad) much more compelling than the highlights of her childhood, probably because they're described so thoroughly in fiction and non fiction elsewhere.
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Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford was an English author, journalist and political campaigner, who was one of the Mitford sisters. She gained American citizenship in later life.
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