Churchill's rebels: Jessica Mitford & Esmond Romilly

Churchill's Rebels is a heart-braking 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. With war ever approaching, Esmond trained to fly and was killed in active service with Bomber Command. They had only had four brief, tempestuous and loving years together.

Meredith Whitford's ground-breaking book uses previous unpublished documents and family sources and is essential reading. A distinguished author, she tells the story of a remarkable era...