Daughters and rebels

Jessica Mitford's memoir traces her life from her childhood in a household of eccentric English aristocrats, the Redesdales, through her first marriage. She was the sixth of the Redesdale children, and her sisters included the novelist Nancy, Unity, whose fascination with Hitler made headlines, Diana, who wed the British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, and Deborah, later Duchess of Devonshire. Jessica found the privileged, conventional upbringing dull from the start, and her telling shows how it shaped her own defiance and, to a degree, her sisters'. Shoplifting came as naturally to her as anything did as a small child. As a young woman she fell for Esmond Romilly, a nephew of Winston Churchill, whom she had never met, and who was fighting for the Loyalists in Spain. She arranged a way to reach him, and their courtship moved quickly. He returned home on leave, then went back to the war, and even a threat of prosecution under English law and a visit from her sister could not keep her from him. The two eventually married.

After Spain, the couple returned to London, where they kept a mix of unusual friends, enjoyed a great deal of amusement, and rarely had money. The final third of the book covers their time in America, which Mitford presents as a lively account of two "blueblooded babes in Hobohemia," a label the couple resented. Readers see Esmond selling stockings door to door, working as a bartender in Miami, and turning up as a houseguest who needs a shave and formal clothes but is well known to the staff. As the war spread, the Romillys moved north, and Esmond went to Canada to join the British forces. He left Jessica in Washington to await the birth of their child, and the narrative ends there. The war also marked the end of her youth, since Esmond was killed in action while fighting for a world he had enjoyed so fully.

This autobiography is written for adult readers who enjoy candid family stories, the Mitford sisters, and the interwar years on both sides of the Atlantic. It is lively, humorous, and direct, and it shows that Jessica, like Nancy, had a strong talent for wit and writing.