Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford by Carla Kaplan

 The Mitford sisters are always fascinating, and Jessica certainly blazed her way through life. A young and romantic revolutionary, she ran away from her restrictive aristocratic family with her dashing cousin Esmond Romilly to join the Spanish Civil War. Jessica and Esmond eventually made their home in America, but Esmond was killed in The Second World War. Jessica joined the Communist Party, fell in love again to marry fellow Communist Bob Treuhaft, and worked tirelessly for civil rights, pursuing several different causes and law cases. However, she is most famous for exposing the exploitation related to funeral practises, however, in her famous tract The American Way of Death.

Nothing fazed Jessica - she attributed this mostly to her stiff upper-lip upbringing. (It’s obviously not all bad)! She stoically survived the death of a husband, the tragic loss of children, and being hounded by the government for her Communist views. She had turned to Communism after being horrified by the conditions of her family’s tenants, and the poor people in the village. She was certainly an amazing woman, but her politics were extremely radical.

After the first part of the book, I found it rather dense and long, although still interesting. I also found the author a bit polemical, and her snide remarks about my favourite sister Nancy did not go down well with me, especially about her biography of Madame de  Pompadour! I have no time for their Nazi sister Diana but reporting on your own sister to the government, as Nancy did, seems to be going a bit far, perhaps, as the author points out. Jessica does sound like the nicest sister, however. The others were apparently incredibly bitchy about her behind her back. 

It’s well-worth reading, but the author’s intended audience seems to be young people who want to work for civil rights. I’d be surprised if many of them are interested in Jessica Mitford, although the new series ‘Outrageous’ is very popular.

I received this free ebook from Edelweiss.plus in return for an honest review.