Daughters and rebels

Jessica Mitford has written a gay and touching account of her growing up from childhood through early marriage. She was the sixth child of a pair of splendid English eccentrics, Lord and Lady Redesdale, and sister to Nancy, now famous for her novels, Unity, who became notorious through her attachment to Hitler, Diana, who married Sir Oswald Mosley and joined him in that strange anachronism, British fascism, and Deborah, the present Duchess of Devonshire. From the first, her definitely "U" background was a source of infinite boredom to Jessica and her lively account of it explains not only her…