h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This book has to be a Must Read for any Anglophile socialist woman with a sensayuma:
http://www.amazon.com/Decca-Letters-Jessica-Mitford/dp/0375410325

I used my Linux magic trickery to grab extracts from it when it was R4's 'Book of the Week' last week (This week it's Gore Vidal). She's a hoot! It's definitely on my Christmas list.

Oooh, looks cool.

Since you liked 'I Capture The Castle', you'll *love* Decca! I'm not a big fan of hoity-toity English poshness myself, but she was just soooo subversive.

Another great bit. Decca was Jesse Jackson's nominator in a Californian election. At a society function, she had the following exchange:
"Well...I guess *someone* white has to support him."
"I can't think what you mean?"
"Oh, my dear, all these coloreds know how to do is breed, breed, breed"
"I don't know what you know about breeding, but I'm quite an expert. I was one of nine children. My mother was one of ten."
"Yes, but these colored women have their children out of wedlock."
"Oh, my family tree is absolutely littered with the illegitimate. I can trace my lineage back to the son of one of Charles II's mistresses."

And when she's worrying about how to fill out her daughter's college application, which asks for information about parents' and grandparents' occupation:
"My father never worked a day in his life. He was a member of the House of Lords. I suppose there was his gold mine, but he never visted it."

By the way...you should know that I picture you as Alex from Doonesbury...

I didn't used to read Doonesbury very often, because our local paper (being a ridiculous bastion of conservative opinion) doesn't run it. Lo and behold, I realised a few weeks ago that it's online! (As if most things aren't these days...) And now I'm reading it religiously.