Policy U–Turn

Jump to Comments

Follow-up to Never Commit Anything to Paper from Casey’s Blog

Title:

Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford

Author:

Peter Y. Sussman

ISBN:

0297607456

Rating:

OK – I am about to perform what is popularly described as an astonishing policy u-turn.

Inspired by this book, I have decided to become a lady of letters.
Accordingly I wrote my first epistle to my sister last night (to be
posted today).

The reason is that it’s a pleasure being able to see a life
unfolding in retrospect – even through the patchy and incomplete media
of letters.

Indeed in this case at least towards the beginning of the book a
hefty potted history is necessarily provided at the start of each
‘chapter’ to fill in the gaps and provide context. Towards the end it’s
not so necessary as by then she had started keeping carbon copies of
her correspondence.

I read Hons and Rebels
over Christmas as well. It is absolutely fascinating to compare all the
sisters different accounts – even more interesting if you add in the fictional Radletts.

Certainly Nancy is quoted as saying of Hons & Rebels
that Decca seems to see her childhood through the prism of Nancy’s
fiction. And Decca herself admitted that Nancy had a point in this.

The other interesting things that have struck me so far (I’m not finished reading yet) are that:

1. Decca
   clearly blames Diana (& Oswald Mosely) for encouraging a bored and
   easily influenced Unity – this is not a view that I have picked up
   elsewhere in my reading.
2. Although appearing to have a
   strong personal moral compass and inflexible opinions It seems to me as
   though Decca was simply playing at being a Communist, more concerned
   with the purist literature than activity, until she met Bob Treuhaft.
3. I had no idea about the pre-McCarthyism red-persecution.¹

^{1. Note to self – must read/see The Crucible}

1 Comment

Filed under Book, Books, Review