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extemporalli's review against another edition
5.0
A wonderful memoir of the Mitford family, whom I suspect I will never tire of reading about. Jessica Mitford is wonderful, and quite aside from the more overtly wonderful character bits (the running away plan, the regret that she never pretended to be fascist so she could go to Germany, get close to Hitler and kill him) I thought one of the more complicated wonderful bits was where she thinks and writes about Unity - her sister who becomes a Nazi and shoots herself after war breaks out between Germany and England. Diana, the other sister who was a fascist, she clearly had absolutely no truck with, but Unity was more complicated and sad because they used to be so close and the communist vs. Nazi thing seemed almost like an adolescent game until it wasn't.
(There are some good Nancy bits in here too, but I almost think the best Nancy bit was in the retrospective preface Jessica wrote upon prepublication, where she writes in a cutting little PS: "Esmond was the original Teddy boy, wasn't he?" Jessica most of your life choices are great - but what Nancy says is true.)
(There are some good Nancy bits in here too, but I almost think the best Nancy bit was in the retrospective preface Jessica wrote upon prepublication, where she writes in a cutting little PS: "Esmond was the original Teddy boy, wasn't he?" Jessica most of your life choices are great - but what Nancy says is true.)
bellatronic's review against another edition
4.0
This memoir provides a perspective on a fascinating period in history. The politics and the social structures of the UK and the rest of the world in the 1920-30s is very interesting and I don't know enough about it, frankly. It seems that things were very different 100 years and yet, in a lot of ways, exactly the same. I was vaguely familiar with the Mitfords through some of Nancy's novels and through some of Evelyn Waugh's writing but I didn't really know much about Jessica before this book. I enjoyed her writing a lot and wish that more of her books were available on Kindle.
fearandtrembling's review against another edition
4.0
Just a little bit (a lot) in love with Decca <3
valley4dolls's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
neom's review against another edition
4.0
I’m developing a bit of an obsession with the Mitfords. I can tell I’m going to start working my way through all their books and letters and biographies.
I loved this and found it a fascinating insight into one person’s life. The idea of running away to Spain or America with no job or clue what you would do terrifies me. There is a line towards the end about the supreme self confidence of the upper class and this sums it up for me. Total madness but I like it.
(Although I noted the hints they were, in fact, a total nightmare - boring and abandoning a car, nicking curtains, etc)
I loved this and found it a fascinating insight into one person’s life. The idea of running away to Spain or America with no job or clue what you would do terrifies me. There is a line towards the end about the supreme self confidence of the upper class and this sums it up for me. Total madness but I like it.
(Although I noted the hints they were, in fact, a total nightmare - boring and abandoning a car, nicking curtains, etc)
georgiamaebe's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
4.5