In case anyone ever reads this and they are not familiar with the British aristocracy in the inter war period, I have prepared a brief rundown of the Mitfords. (I was going to make Mitford Top Trumps but I ran out time, patience and artistic ability.)
Know Your Mitfords
Muv: a.k.a Lady Redesdale. Posh tweedy lady who won't let her daughters mingle with the garstly bourgeoisie. In her book this is pretty much everyone so Mitfords don't get out much.Farv: Appears in Nancy's novels as "Mad Uncle Matthew" who is always shouting, "You filthy sewer!" at effete young men and threatening to have them horsewhipped. Likes hunting. Dislikes everything else.
Nancy: The novelist. Wrote Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love.
Diana: Fascist. Marries Oswold Mosley of the British Union of Fascits and spends WW2 interred. Completely Barking.
Pam: A boring one.
Tom: a.k.a Tudemmy. The Boy. Less loopy than the girls. Possibly because he was allowed to go to school and meet people outside his own family.
Unity: a.k.a. Baud. Fascist. Has a crush on Hitler. Spends her time in Germany hanging out with top Nazis. Tries to kill herself by shooting herself in the head when rejected by the Fuhrer. Gives herself a horrific brain injury instead and lingers on for ages.
Jessica: a.k.a. Decca. Communist. Runs away to join The International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War.
Deborah: a.k.a Debo. Mocked by her older sisters for being a bit thick because all she wanted to do was marry a Duke and raise chickens but compared to being a Communist or a Fascist, that actually looks pretty sensible.
So This book is the autobiography of The Communist One. Jessica is also one of the youngest and while Nancy is being a Bright Young Thing and Diana is bringing shame on the family by divorcing*, Decca and Boud are stomping about the schoolroom being rather ineffectually home schooled by their mother and giving each other Chinese burns. For my money, the most normal thing in Decca's childhood is the weird games she plays with her siblings. In fact I think that Hure, Hare, Hure, Commencement (of unbearable pain) sounds like exactly the kind of game that my sister and I could really have got into.
The two sisters grow up without any other companions or anything to occupy themselves save reading and winding each other up. Jessica reads the pacifist literature spawned by the first world war and through that finds out about Socialism, Unity becomes a fully paid up member of the British Union of Fascists and Jessica moves further left into Communism, apparently to annoy her sister as much as anything else. Was this a time of extreme political views when all of politics was a lunatic fringe of some kind? Or is it just these girls in their insular, overheated world who have gone a bit odd in the reasoning department?
So This book is the autobiography of The Communist One. Jessica is also one of the youngest and while Nancy is being a Bright Young Thing and Diana is bringing shame on the family by divorcing*, Decca and Boud are stomping about the schoolroom being rather ineffectually home schooled by their mother and giving each other Chinese burns. For my money, the most normal thing in Decca's childhood is the weird games she plays with her siblings. In fact I think that Hure, Hare, Hure, Commencement (of unbearable pain) sounds like exactly the kind of game that my sister and I could really have got into.
The two sisters grow up without any other companions or anything to occupy themselves save reading and winding each other up. Jessica reads the pacifist literature spawned by the first world war and through that finds out about Socialism, Unity becomes a fully paid up member of the British Union of Fascists and Jessica moves further left into Communism, apparently to annoy her sister as much as anything else. Was this a time of extreme political views when all of politics was a lunatic fringe of some kind? Or is it just these girls in their insular, overheated world who have gone a bit odd in the reasoning department?
Long years seem to be spent grumpily hanging around the family home waiting for life to start. Jessica looks forward to "coming out"** as a signifier of adulthood but rightly predicts she won't meet any like minded young men in her season of balls. In this period of solitary moodiness she starts reading about the exploits of a distant relation in the press. Esmond Romilly has bought shame on his family by refusing to join the OTC, claiming to be a pacifist, escaping from Wellington public school and founding a Communist Bookshop. He sounds like just the sort of chap Jessica would like to meet, but unfortunately, he goes to fight the fascists in Spain*** and the mooning continues.
Then one day she finds out he's back in England and secures a weekend invitation to the same country house where he is convalescing. The pair seem to hit it off straight away and Esmond readily agrees to help her run away to the war in Spain.
I'm afraid I can't really take to Esmond Romilly. If he were from any other background, he'd be described as a wastrel and good-for-nothing. I think its his gambling addiction, plus the fact that he clearly fancies himself as a scammer and con artist (stealing from friends and family is apparently OK when you're a Communist). Despite this he falls for scam after scam himself, repeated losing all the money Jessica has earned on card games and bent horse races. Fortunately, being a Communist, she doesn't really mind about the money. In fact Jessica doesn't mind about any damn fool thing that Esmond does, he is a genius in her eyes and everything they do together is just one big romantic adventure.
Together they go to Spain, fail to report on the war, get married, come back to London and hang out with other Communists, have a baby girl who dies of measles (I got very upset for them at this point. Man, I'm glad to live in the century that I do!) and go travelling across America while they wait for the war to break out.
According to Jessica, by 1938 it was obvious that war was coming but not at all obvious whose side Britain would be on. This is a million miles from the plucky-Britain-standing-alone-against-Hitler line that we have all been spun. While I'm not at all sure of Jessica as a reliable narrator of historical facts, I still recall a number of high-profile Brits (including the King) who were favourably impressed by the Nazis.
The book ends with the outbreak of war and Esmond joining the Canadian RAF. I looked him up and he died soon after at only 23. He never had the chance to mend his ways and stop being an idiot. I guess if I was assessed on only the first 23 years of life, I'd look a bit bloody clueless too. Jessica goes on to live to a ripe old age, but that's in other books.
Overall I enjoyed the growing up with the crazy Mitfords parts of the book but found the Romily years hard going. Jessica writes well enough that I'd look for her collected letters to her sisters, but I'm not sure I can handle any more memoir. She's at her best pointing out the ridiculous behaviour of her family and herself. When it comes to everything else she seems very sure of her opinions but totally unable to marshal anything resembling an argument in support of them. Or perhaps she assumes that her readers want celebrity gossip more than they want politics or history but I could have coped with more Communist ideology and less guff about lovely people we met in the Hamptons. That's probably just me.
*Yes, I'm afraid that for the British Aristocracy in this period divorce was WAY more embarrassing than being a fascist.
Then one day she finds out he's back in England and secures a weekend invitation to the same country house where he is convalescing. The pair seem to hit it off straight away and Esmond readily agrees to help her run away to the war in Spain.
I'm afraid I can't really take to Esmond Romilly. If he were from any other background, he'd be described as a wastrel and good-for-nothing. I think its his gambling addiction, plus the fact that he clearly fancies himself as a scammer and con artist (stealing from friends and family is apparently OK when you're a Communist). Despite this he falls for scam after scam himself, repeated losing all the money Jessica has earned on card games and bent horse races. Fortunately, being a Communist, she doesn't really mind about the money. In fact Jessica doesn't mind about any damn fool thing that Esmond does, he is a genius in her eyes and everything they do together is just one big romantic adventure.
Together they go to Spain, fail to report on the war, get married, come back to London and hang out with other Communists, have a baby girl who dies of measles (I got very upset for them at this point. Man, I'm glad to live in the century that I do!) and go travelling across America while they wait for the war to break out.
According to Jessica, by 1938 it was obvious that war was coming but not at all obvious whose side Britain would be on. This is a million miles from the plucky-Britain-standing-alone-against-Hitler line that we have all been spun. While I'm not at all sure of Jessica as a reliable narrator of historical facts, I still recall a number of high-profile Brits (including the King) who were favourably impressed by the Nazis.
The book ends with the outbreak of war and Esmond joining the Canadian RAF. I looked him up and he died soon after at only 23. He never had the chance to mend his ways and stop being an idiot. I guess if I was assessed on only the first 23 years of life, I'd look a bit bloody clueless too. Jessica goes on to live to a ripe old age, but that's in other books.
Overall I enjoyed the growing up with the crazy Mitfords parts of the book but found the Romily years hard going. Jessica writes well enough that I'd look for her collected letters to her sisters, but I'm not sure I can handle any more memoir. She's at her best pointing out the ridiculous behaviour of her family and herself. When it comes to everything else she seems very sure of her opinions but totally unable to marshal anything resembling an argument in support of them. Or perhaps she assumes that her readers want celebrity gossip more than they want politics or history but I could have coped with more Communist ideology and less guff about lovely people we met in the Hamptons. That's probably just me.
*Yes, I'm afraid that for the British Aristocracy in this period divorce was WAY more embarrassing than being a fascist.
**As a debutant, not an LGBT.
***No, I don't know how you segue from pacifism to joining in foreign wars either.
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