Hons and rebels

First published in 1960, Jessica Mitford's autobiography is an account of the enclosed and eccentric childhood through which Nancy, Diana, Pam, Unity, Decca and Debo lived.

In writing of their upbringing between the wars she also writes of her own commitment to communism and of her elopement to the Spanish Civil War with Esmond Romilly.Jessica Mitford is the author of "The American Way of Death" and has recently published a biography of Grace Darling entitled "Grace had an English Heart".