New excerpt from Troublemaker in The Telegraph UK: The secret life of Decca, the most rebellious Mitford Sister
The Telegraph UK has published an excerpt from Troublemaker titled, “The secret life of Decca, the most rebellious Mitford sister: From communism and political activism to singing with Cyndi Lauper, history has overlooked the aristocratic siblings’ biggest troublemaker.”
Much has been written about the legendary Mitford sisters. One reason the cultural fascination with this aristocratic family remains so strong — with television shows, plays and multiple books retelling their stories — is that the siblings seemed torn apart by being on opposite sides in the central conflict of their times.
Jessica Mitford, always known as “Decca,” was the red sheep of the family: a committed communist and activist. I have spent the past 10 years immersed in detailed records of her writing career, friendships, evolving political views and painful accounts of being on the other side of one of the most famously divided families in history. Too often, including in the recent Britbox series “Outrageous,” her politics have been presented as frivolous or shallow, as if giving up her wealth and privilege were just a prank, or a Mitford family tease. But she paid an enormous price, I learnt, for removing herself from the comforts of the Cotswolds.
Born in 1917, Decca was not raised as a rebel. Like her five famous sisters, Nancy, Diana, Pamela, Unity and Deborah, she was raised to be beautiful, enjoy her privileges, marry well and perpetuate her class.
The family was as famous for its insularity as for its eccentricities. In St Mary’s Church, in the Cotswolds village of Swinbrook, the Mitfords owned the “living” of the church and hired, and fired, the vicar at will.
It was their music, their seating, their service. Mitford parents “Muv” and “Farve” let their six daughters tow their pets along to services. Their goat, dogs, lambs and sometimes a pony were tied to the iron fence enclosing the adjacent graveyard. From inside the grey-stone church, the animals could be heard bleating and barking as the girls giggled and pinched their way through tiresome sermons.
Outside St Mary’s, the tumult of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, the global flu epidemic, unemployment and hunger marches, women’s suffrage and the birth of modern mass media went unremarked by parents focused on what a frustrated Decca called a “milk-bland life” of local concerns.
But as they grew older, their cosseted life chafed. Denied any of the outlets for their talents available to their one brother, Tom, they busted out of life in the Cotswolds with choices which were often unworthy of them. Aged 11, Decca started a “running away account” at Drummonds Bank, determined “to get away from that dread[ful] place at all costs.”