Review of Troublemaker in The Times of London
December 04, 2025
The Times of London has reviewed Troublemaker (which has been published in the UK by Hurst), writing, “Kaplan makes the case that Decca was a prototype social justice warrior.”
Kaplan has written the most well-researched biography of Jessica Mitford to date. She is also, refreshingly, less interested in her as one of the infamous Mitford girls than as a pioneering advocate for what we now call “social justice.” The result is a book that is light on the usual beats of Mitfordia — the pranks, the frocks, the casual antisemitism — and pays Decca the real compliment of treating her as a public intellectual. By the time she was middle aged, the Mitford narrative, steered mostly by Nancy, had firmly fixed Decca as a social malcontent and angry runaway who was acting out ancient family tensions through the culture wars of the mid-20th century. But, as Kaplan wisely asks, what exactly is delinquent about devoting your life to causes that strike you as mattering terribly even if it means losing the respect of the people you still, despite everything, love the most?