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Books by Meredith Whitford

churchill mitford cousin

Ask your local bookstore to order if they don't have it in stock.

CHURCHILL'S REBELS: ESMOND ROMILLY & JESSICA MITFORD

Churchill's Rebels is a heart-breaking story of two young people madly in love and in open rebellion against their up-bringing and a way of life. Esmond Romilly was the nephew of Winston Churchill, a rebel against his family and public school who left England to fight for the rebels in the Spanish Civil War. Jessica Mitford, was one of the notorious Mitford girls - always known as Decca - and grew up in a life of Downton Abbey aristocratic privilege. Her sister Unity went to Germany and became very close to Hitler, while Diana married Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. In 1937, when Esmond was 18 and Jessica 19 they met and fell madly in love and, scandalously, ran away together to the Communist Front in Spain. After three months of family opposition, they were finally married.

Bronze Award: The 2014 Wishing Shelf Awards

Reviews

Whitford has brought a clear eye and a fresh pen to the early life of Jessica Mitford, [and] seems keen to rescue Esmond Romilly from the bad press he has had in the Mitford canon.


- Mark McGinness, The Spectator

PICK OF THE WEEK

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This lively and witty depiction of their background and marriage brings them and their times alive – sometimes with a Mitfordian turn of phrase.

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- Steve Carroll, Sydney Morning Herald

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Book no.1
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