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'These letters are a treat ... as an example of what a woman can do
once she has rid herself of, or at least decided to ignore, the
expectations of others - family, men, society - Jessica Mitford
will always take some beating' OBSERVER 'Captures history's most
charming muckraker, from her friendships with Katharine Graham and
Maya Angelou to her devotion to civil rights' VOGUE 'Jessica
Mitford is a sister of mine. If I had to go into a room with a
leopard, I wouldn't hesitate to ask for her' Maja Angelou Over her
78 years, Decca's letters reveal a remarkable life - from her
childhood as the daughter of a British peer to her scandalous
elopement to the Spanish Civil War with her cousin, to her life in
the USA, where she married a radical lawyer. The Mitford girls
included Diana (who married the British fascist leader Oswald
Mosley), Unity (who was close to Adolf Hitler) and Debo (who became
the Duchess of Devonshire). Decca shocked them all when she joined
the American Communist Party. Her letters are the stories of a
century: gossip and politics, war and mores, the wonders of rapid
technological change, the poignancy of personal struggles. They are
also a record of her never-ending quest for social justice. This is
a fascinating collection that reveals to us intimately the most
ebullient Mitford of them all.
First published in 1974, The American Prison Business studies the
lunacies, the delusions, and the bizarre inner workings of the
American prison business. From the first demonstration that the
penitentiary is an American invention that was initiated by the
late eighteenth-century reformers, to the startling revelations, in
the chapter called 'Cheaper than Chimpanzees' of how pharmaceutical
companies lease prisoners as human guinea-pigs, every page
stimulates and surprises the reader as Jessica Mitford describes,
inter alia the chemical, surgical and psychiatric techniques used
to help 'violent' prisoners to be 'reborn'; why businessmen tend to
be more enthusiastic than the prisoners they employ in the
'rent-a-con' plan; and the Special Isolation Diet which tastes like
inferior dog food. Jessica Mitford's financial analysis of the
prison business is a scoop. Her hard-eyed examination of how parole
really works is a revelation. As the prison abolition movement
continues to gain momentum, this book will provide food for thought
for legislators, officials and students of sociology, law,
criminology, penology, and history.
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Hons and Rebels (Paperback)
Jessica Mitford; Introduction by Christopher Hitchens
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R496
R421
Discovery Miles 4 210
Save R75 (15%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Jessica Mitford, the great muckraking journalist, was part of a
legendary English aristocratic family. Her sisters included Nancy,
doyenne of the 1920s London smart set and a noted novelist and
biographer; Diana, wife to the English fascist chief Sir Oswald
Mosley; Unity, who fell head over in heels in love with Hitler; and
Deborah, later the Duchess of Devonshire. Jessica swung left and
moved to America, where she took part in the civil rights movement
and wrote her classic expose of the undertaking business, "The
American Way of Death."
"Hons and Rebels" is the hugely entertaining tale of Mitford's
upbringing, which was, as she dryly remarks, "not exactly
conventional. . . Debo spent silent hours in the chicken house
learning to do an exact imitation of the look of pained
concentration that comes over a hen's face when it is laying an
egg. . . . Unity and I made up a complete language called
Boudledidge, unintelligible to any but ourselves, in which we
translated various dirty songs (for safe singing in front of the
grown-ups)." But Mitford found her family's world as smothering as
it was singular and, determined to escape it, she eloped with
Esmond Romilly, Churchill's nephew, to go fight in the Spanish
Civil War. The ensuing scandal, in which a British destroyer was
dispatched to recover the two truants, inspires some of Mitford's
funniest, and most pointed, pages.
A family portrait, a tale of youthful folly and high-spirited
adventure, a study in social history, a love story, "Hons and
Rebels" is a delightful contribution to the autobiographer's art.
In the early 1960s, this classic work of investigative journalism
was a number one bestseller. The savage and hilarious analysis of
America's funeral practices rocked the industry and shocked the
public. This up-dated edition (revised just before the author's
death) shows that if anything the industry has become more
pernicious than ever in its assault on our practices and wallets.
And it's an industry that - alas - sooner or later affects us all.
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".
The journalistic profile is one of the most popular, widely read
types of magazine feature writing. Helen Benedict, a master of the
genre, has collected for "Portraits in Print" nine of her best
pieces, and provided a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
art of portrait journalism.
Among the persons profiled here are Joseph Brodsky, Isaac
Bashevis Singer, Susan Sontag, Paule Marshall, Bernard Malamud, and
Beverly Sills. In a general introduction and in lively discussions
after each profile, Helen Benedict describes how she selected the
subjects, got them to agree to be interviewed, convinced the
magazines' editor's to assign her the pieces, prepared for the
interviews, and set about writing each one after the research and
interviewing were complete. Benedict also discusses how much
confidence to betray, how personal to get, what to leave out, and
the writer's power over the profile subject. This is fascinating
reading, especially for aspiring writers who hope to learn more
about the skills and practices of this popular genre.
"Portraits in Print" concludes with an Afterward by the famous
muckraker and author of "The American Way of Death," Jessica
Mitford. Mitford takes the opposite tack, in an amusing essay about
what it is like to be an interviewee.
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