"Bere biographer Carla Kaplan dives deep into [Decca's] life and offers a long overdue tome dedicated to putting Decca front and center." — Town & Country
"A perceptive, sympathetic biography of activist, unabashed communist, and muckraker Jessica Mitford . . . . Kaplan captures Decca’s energy and verve, her complicated relationship with her aristocratic family, and her unwavering devotion to fighting injustice, racism, and inequality. A brisk, engaging biography." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Beautifully written, utterly transporting and relentlessly vivid by the recovery of amazing circumstances and astonishing human relationships, Carla Kaplan’s remarkable biography of Jessica Mitford is a journey through the many social and political worlds contained in a single family, from British feudal aristocracy and pro-Hitler fascist enthusiasm to the American Civil Rights Movement and card-carrying American Communism. This captivating story—empathetic and yet clear-eyed—of a fascinating woman, her sisters and their lives in the 20th Century is a breathtaking and singular achievement.” — Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-8), #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
"Marvelous, enchanting and hilarious. Carla Kaplan has triumphed, bringing to life the delightful odyssey of Jessica 'Decca' Mitford, the mischievous British aristocrat turned American radical and celebrated muckraker. An inspiring biography by a master biographer."
— Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography in New York City
"Carla Kaplan’s deeply researched account chronicles Jessica Mitford’s fascinating transformation from a British aristocrat to an American Communist, journalist, writer, and educator. She unveils a unique angle of ‘good trouble’ and civil rights allyship, told with the drama and humor of Mitford’s unique personality." — Tamara Payne, Pulitzer Prize–winning coauthor of The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
"Here’s a book as infectious, stylish, and hard-hitting as its subject—the glamorous and rebellious Jessica Mitford. Carla Kaplan writes with the flair of a novelist and backs it up with relentless research and keen insight. Troublemaker is one of those rare books produced from the marriage of a fascinating, timely story and a wonderful storyteller. An absolute treasure." — Jonathan Eig, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for King: A Life
"Brilliantly researched. Every paragraph is a fit to the struggle for civil rights decency. Illuminating. Joyful!" — Blanche Wiesen Cook, award-winning author of Eleanor Roosevelt (3 vol.)
"A remarkable book about a remarkable woman. If you don’t know a lot about Mitford (and her exceptionally weird family), you’re in for a treat. If you think you already know a lot about her, think again: you’re in for a bracing helping of shock and awe. Because Kaplan’s research is so impressively deep, and her prose so pleasingly fleet, her complicated and compelling subject now has the biography she has long deserved." — Daniel Okrent, author of The Guarded Gate