First edition, first impression, of the author's second novel, "another high-spirited story of love and larks among the young and fashionable" (ODNB). This is a sparkling copy in the very scarce dust jacket. We can trace no other copies in the jacket in auction records. Written in the family home in Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, the book satirizes Mitford's fellow Bright Young Things and features thinly disguised portrayals of her then-fiancée, Hamish Erskine, and John Betjeman. Her sister, Jessica, later remembered how the novel scandalized their mother: "For months Nancy had sat giggling helplessly by the drawing room fire, her curiously triangular green eyes flashing with amusement, while her thin pen flew along the lines of a child's exercise book. Sometimes she read bits aloud to us. 'You can't publish that under your own name,' my mother insisted" (p. 34). The novel is illustrated by Mark Ogilvie-Grant (1905-1969), one of Mitford's closest friends and confidants. Provenance: from the collection of the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021), with his posthumous bookplate. Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels, 1960. Octavo. Original grey and pink streaked cloth, spine and front cover lettered in blue. With dust jacket. Frontispiece and 11 illustrations by Mark Ogilvie-Grant. Christmas 1932 gift inscription to front pastedown. Cloth sharp, just a hint of foxing to fore edge; jacket a little rubbed, spine toned, a couple of faint stains, a few small chips and short closed tears to extremities, flaps without price as issued: a near-fine copy in very good dust jacket.
