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A review by kate_in_a_book
Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford
4.0
This is Jessica, or Decca’s, memoir of the first portion of her life. She recounts her childhood, her political awakening and her relationship with Esmond Romilly. I laughed, I cried, I shook my head often in disbelief.
As she admits, her childhood was unconventional. They were old-fashioned upper-class toffs, distantly related to royalty and less distantly to Winston Churchill. Jessica and her five sisters received no formal education (though their brother was sent away to school). They instead enjoyed a series of private tutors whom they teased and tortured. This meant they reached adulthood in a state that was both wordly and hugely naive and sheltered. Perhaps this explains the extreme political allegiances of at least three Mitford sisters.
Jessica acknowledges early on that readers may recognise some of the events she covers from her sister Nancy’s thinly veiled autobiographical novel The Pursuit of Love. She deals with this in what could be a humorous offhand comment, or could be a savage swipe, depending on how you read it. As someone who has indeed read The Pursuit of Love and The Mitford Girls, I did know the bare bones of Jessica’s story, but that’s no replacement for hearing it in her own words, with the details she feels to be important.
Her words are, unavoidably, those of someone born into tremendous privilege. The “jolly hockey sticks” tone oozes from the earlier pages. It is almost comedic the number of false starts that Jessica has in breaking away from her family’s right-wing politics to pursue her own left-wing ideals. Adult Jessica is certainly a socialist, and that choice cuts her off from the bulk of her family’s money, but she still has plenty of rich family and friends to visit.
Read my full review: https://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2020/05/15/invisible-boundaries-kept-me-boxed-in-from-the-real-life-of-other-people-going-on-all-around/
As she admits, her childhood was unconventional. They were old-fashioned upper-class toffs, distantly related to royalty and less distantly to Winston Churchill. Jessica and her five sisters received no formal education (though their brother was sent away to school). They instead enjoyed a series of private tutors whom they teased and tortured. This meant they reached adulthood in a state that was both wordly and hugely naive and sheltered. Perhaps this explains the extreme political allegiances of at least three Mitford sisters.
Jessica acknowledges early on that readers may recognise some of the events she covers from her sister Nancy’s thinly veiled autobiographical novel The Pursuit of Love. She deals with this in what could be a humorous offhand comment, or could be a savage swipe, depending on how you read it. As someone who has indeed read The Pursuit of Love and The Mitford Girls, I did know the bare bones of Jessica’s story, but that’s no replacement for hearing it in her own words, with the details she feels to be important.
Her words are, unavoidably, those of someone born into tremendous privilege. The “jolly hockey sticks” tone oozes from the earlier pages. It is almost comedic the number of false starts that Jessica has in breaking away from her family’s right-wing politics to pursue her own left-wing ideals. Adult Jessica is certainly a socialist, and that choice cuts her off from the bulk of her family’s money, but she still has plenty of rich family and friends to visit.
Read my full review: https://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2020/05/15/invisible-boundaries-kept-me-boxed-in-from-the-real-life-of-other-people-going-on-all-around/