More than an extremely amusing autobiography…she has evoked a whole generation. Her book is full of the music of time.” Publicado en 1960, “Nobles y Rebeldes” , es la biografía de Jessica Mitford, quinta de las seis hijas de una familia de la aristocracia inglesa, las cuales han pasado a la historia por sus complejas y escandalosas vidas sentimentales y políticas. Los nombres de las mayorías de ellas se relacionan con el fascismo, siendo Jessica la excepción, pues ella militó en el Partido Comunista y no dudo en escaparse de su casa para acudir a la Guerra Civil Española con quien poco después sería su esposo, Esmond Romilly, sobrino del mismísimo Winston Churchill. La biografía puede dividirse en tres partes: en la primera Jessica nos habla de cómo era su vida familiar y de sus relaciones con sus padres y sus hermanos, hablando también sobre que pasaba en las existencias de la mayoría de sus hermanas. En esta primera parte conocemos como empezaron las inquietudes políticas y sociales de Jessica, como su vida de niña bien en la campiña inglesa termino por resultarle tediosa y aburrida, sintiendo la necesidad de hacer algo más con su vida. En la segunda parte, el foco se centrará más en la Guerra Civil española y lo que Jessica y Esmond vivieron en el frente vasco, además del escándalo que supuso su fuga y los intentos del gobierno inglés y sus familias por hacerles regresar a su patria. La última parte se centrará en la vida de la pareja como casados, hablando de sus problemas económicos en Inglaterra y de su posterior periplo por los Estados Unidos. La biografía terminará con la partida de Esmond al frente para luchar en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Mitford] has a most unusual talent for recapturing the past....There is a feeling of immediacy, as if it were all being written on the spot, at the time, by the teen-ager it was happening to. It is a fascinating book. The Romilly family's solution to all problems seems to be running away. He began by running away from boarding school, setting himself up as a "centre for runaways"--of his own class, of course. The child Decca creates a "running away from home" bank account, and subsequently goes with Romilly to Spain, where they basically sit around; he writes about the people who truly are starving and dying in the streets, while the couple themselves live rent-free in the press hotel and consume "huge greasy" meals of many courses.

the Mitford gels again | Biography books | The Bring on the Mitford gels again | Biography books | The

Los acontecimientos que hacen historia suelen parecer interminables cuando uno los está viviendo. Solo al cabo de los años se tiene la perspectiva suficiente para ver lo esencial, reducido ya a expresiones telescópicas y simplistas para los libros de historia […] En la vida real, el desarrollo de una crisis que conduce a un cambio de gobierno, el curso de negociaciones y conferencias internacionales que conforman el destino de una generación o el flujo y reflujo de las batallas que deciden el resultado de una guerra se desarrollan con exasperante parsimonia, como a cámara lenta, y el significado decisivo de cada etapa a menudo termi na enterrado bajo ríos de tinta y montañas de especulaciones, rumores, interpretaciones, relatos «inspirados», comentarios a favor y en contra.” This section of the book I loved, even without the full line-up of Mitfords. We see, for instance, them being dragged around by the Conservative Party –‘Our car was decorated with Tory blue ribbons, and if we should pass a car flaunting the red badge of Socialism, we were allowed to lean out of the window and shout at the occupants: “Down with the horrible Counter-Honnish Labour Party!”.’ We get a child’s-eye-view of the various scandals Nancy causes. Mostly, we get a taste of Decca’s thirst for independence, particularly in her longing to go to school and her storing-up of a Running Away Fund. More than an extremely amusing autobiography...she has evoked a whole generation. Her book is full of the music of time. Shouldn’t think of it. I hate the beastly Fascists. If you’re going to be one, I’m going to be a Communist, so there.” So Jessica tells us the tale of someone born into privilege, luxury, and uselessness, who finds all of these qualities completely intolerable and who cannot, cannot, cannot endure the idea of the life that is laid out before her. She doesn't know what she believes, but she's sure it's not what her family believes.

the story of Jessica Mitford’s struggles makes tumultous and rewarding reading, and I recommend it heartily.” Odd pursuits, indeed, and little wonder that my mother’s continual refrain was, ‘You’re very silly children.’ urn:oclc:877131609 Republisher_date 20171223165528 Republisher_operator [email protected] Republisher_time 406 Scandate 20171223092046 Scanner ttscribe8.hongkong.archive.org Scanningcenter hongkong Top_six true Tts_version v1.57-initial-82-g2b8ab4d Worldcat (source edition) On the day war was declared, Unity went to the Englischer Garten in Munich and shot herself. She survived, but was left with permanent brain damage. Hitler arranged for her to be moved to a hospital in Switzerland, whence her parents collected her. Muv nursed her devotedly, but Farve was so upset he went off with the parlour maid and in effect ended the marriage. The Mosleys were, meanwhile, imprisoned for most of the war, with Decca warmly urging Churchill not to release them. Tom was killed in Burma; Unity died of meningitis in 1948.

Hons and Rebels | The Society of Hons Jessica Mitford | Hons and Rebels | The Society of Hons

Relations with her English family remained complex – relatively peaceful over the years with Nancy, Debo and Pam, unrelentingly hostile towards Unity, who died in 1948, and towards Diana, whose fascist sympathies she was unable to forgive. After the success of Hons and Rebels, Decca wrote several more books, including The American Way of Death, an investigation into the deceptions and dishonesty of the funeral industry. But it is Hons and Rebels for which she rightly remains best known, a remarkable portrait of an eccentric family depicted by one of its most eccentric members. Si hay algo que me ha resultado conmovedor es su manera de pasar de puntillas sobre los momentos más dolorosos para ella. Y es en esa falta de detalles y de explicaciones donde el lector puede percibir hasta qué punto sufrió la autora a lo largo de su vida, como las ausencias que tuvo que soportar a lo largo de su vida dejaron en ella una huella profunda. Puede explayarse en tratar como le afecto la separación de su hermana favorita, Unity Valkirie (nombre profético donde los haya, pero conocida familiarmente como Gorgo) cuando esta abrazó sin ambages la doctrina del nazismo y se convirtió en miembro del circulo más intimo de Hitler, Intentando suicidarse cuando Alemania en Inglaterra se declararon la guerra. Pero, en cambio, pasa rápidamente por el episodio de la muerte de su primera hija. Y trata de forma abrupta y rápida las últimas páginas de su biografía, donde habla de la despedida a con su esposo cuando este se marcha a luchar al frente, centrándose más en una suerte de estudio antropológico social para explicar la naturaleza de las acciones de ambos a lo largo de su relación. Tampoco lo dice abiertamente, pero nunca deja dudas al lector sobre lo profundo que fue el vínculo con Esmond y lo mucho que se querían. Hay en todo esto un practismo moral increíblemente fuerte que tiene algo de supervivencia mental. El desenlace del libro es áridamente abrupto, pero que de alguna manera encaja porque tiene sentido. En las últimas páginas hay una sensación de fatalidad que lo envuelve todo totalmente, aunque hay que reconocer que eso en eso tiene mucho que ver el hecho de que se esté contando ya una situación que se conoce de antemano, que ya se sabe cómo va acabar. Y el párrafo final, aunque al igual que el resto de la obra es simple y conciso, tiene una gran carga emotiva que es imposible que pase desapercibida para nadie, y que hace que sea impactante por ese mismo motivo. De esa forma brillante y simple la autora expresa mucho más que lo que dice en sus palabras. It was well over a year since I had begun my research when Decca came to London and agreed to see me. I was slightly apprehensive at the prospect of meeting her, aware of her somewhat confrontational reputation and her long career as a defiantly radical author and journalist. We met at the Chelsea house where she was staying, Decca grey-haired, rather stout, with a very old-fashioned upper-class voice, ‘grossly affected’ as one of her old friends described it. Although, unlike her sisters, I found her slightly intimidating, she answered all my questions and recalled a great deal that was invaluable about her childhood and in particular her relations with Nancy. Diana was arrested, in part, because of Nancy, who informed on her Nazi sisters to the British authorities. “She is a ruthless and shrewd egotist, a devoted fascist and admirer of Hitler and sincerely desires the downfall of England and democracy in general,” Nancy told MI5 of Diana. Nancy also warned authorities of her sister Pamela, whom Nancy said was a virulent anti-Semite. Pamela and her husband, Nancy wrote, “had been heard to declare a) that all Jews in England should be killed and b) that the war should be stopped now ‘before we lose any more money.’”Very, very cold. No heart. And selfishness reigns beyond 100 examples of specificity. Ballroom Communist doesn't even begin to touch it. And some of the readers seemed to have used Jessica as rather a map for the family's disfunction reaction idol or something? Hardly that either. Everything Jessica failed to understand or to even approach in interest she scorned. Very pathetic user individual. T]he story of Jessica Mitford's struggles makes tumultous and rewarding reading, and I recommend it heartily. Unfortunately the book stops too soon. It covers her privileged, aristocratic childhood, elopement with her second cousin Esmond Romilly, both only 19 years old and off to the Spanish Civil War. It concludes with the outbreak of the Second World War when Esmond leaves for Canada and Airforce Training Camp. She is pregnant for the second time. We are summarily told of Esmond’s tragic death which will soon follow in 1941. Tom, our only brother, occupied a rather special place in family life. We called him Tuddemy, partly because it was the Boudledidge translation of Tom, partly because we thought it rhymed with ‘adultery’. ‘Only one brother and six sisters! How you must love him. How spoilt he must be,’ strangers would say. ‘Love him! You mean loathe him,’ was the standard Honnish answer. Debo, asked by a census-taker what her fam­ily consisted of, replied furiously, ‘Three Giants, three Dwarfs and one Brute.’ The Giants were Nancy, Diana and Unity, all exceptionally tall; the Dwarfs Pam, Debo and me; the Brute, poor Tuddemy. My mother has to this day a cardboard badge on which is carefully lettered: ‘League against Tom. Head: Nancy.’

Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford | Waterstones

I was expecting a biography of the eccentric Mitford childhood we (mostly) all know well. The sort of thing we found in Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love– with the hons in the cupboard, the father hunting the children, and the various codes. Spoilers: it is not. We do see some of Decca’s childhood – but by the time she was around in the nursery, her older siblings were more or less adults. Just Unity, Debo, and Decca were left around – and it is the three of them who formed various bonds and antipathies. Many people know about the Mitfords, but if you don’t, here’s the brief run-down: Nancy the novelist wrote The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate (both highly recommended), along with other novels; Diana married the leader of the British Union of Fascists; Unity was fascinated by Hitler and shot herself at the start of WW2; Jessica (‘Decca’) was the communist who lived in America most of her life; Deborah (‘Debo’) became the Duchess of Devonshire. The remaining siblings Pam and Tom didn’t acquire quite so much press.Leni Riefenstahl claims that Hitler told her he could never have an intimate relationship with a foreigner. But he was obviously very fond of Unity; he called her 'Kind' (child) and took her to Bayreuth. Moreover, he was happy to meet the various members of her family who came on visits; they were all duly charmed, except Farve, who persisted in referring to Nazis as 'a murderous gang of pests'. Diana, of course, had her own reasons for cultivating Hitler - he was guest of honour at her wedding to Oswald Mosley in 1936 - but these will have to wait for a posthumous historian.