Book cover illustration titled "Do Admit! The Mitford Sisters and Me" by Mimi Pond, with portraits of Nancy, Unity, Pam, Jessica, Diana, and Deborah, and Mimi Pond lying on the bookshelf at the bottom. The top features two women on the roof.

Do Admit!
The Mitford Sisters and Me

Drawn & Quarterly 2025

  • Five blue stars on a white background.

    “A spectacular, dizzying romp through the tumult of the twentieth century. Her kinetic drawings and boisterous, endlessly inventive layouts somehow bring coherence to the sprawling, branching plots of her subjects’ lives. The visual world Pond creates is phantasmagoric, drawing on deep veins of vintage graphic design. And her grip on the words is equally deft. She’s clearly spent so much time steeping in the rich textual legacy that this family has left the world—their books, letters and secret family lingo—that she begins to sound suspiciously like a seventh member of this sophisticated and scandalous sorority. Brava.”

    - Alison Bechdel, Fun Home

  • Five blue stars in a row on a white background

    “Whether you know nothing (or everything) about the infamous Mitfords you will be wildly entertained by this exhaustive tome about them. A massive work almost big enough to encompass the enormous egos and lives of these fascinating (and sometimes frightening) woman. Told with wry charm and wit (the kind the Mitfords themselves might have appreciated) and endlessly visually-inventive. It is the sort of historical biography that will remind you that, yes, truth is always stranger than fiction.”

    - Seth, Clyde Fans

  • Five blue stars aligned horizontally.

    “Mimi Pond’s Do Admit is a dazzling, acrobatic swirl of graphic invention. It mingles the fascinating story of the famous, fabulous sisters with scenes from the author’s glamour-starved childhood in 1950s San Diego. Pond’s dry humour fits seamlessly with that of her eccentric British characters, but she is at her empathetic best portraying the heartbreaking losses and turns of fortune they endure. Her love for them shines forth from every page.”

    - Maurice Vellekoop, I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together

Illustration of the MITFORD sisters in a blue-toned room with large windows overlooking a landscape. Four women are sitting or lying on a window seat, one woman is reading, one is writing, one is holding a cup, and a child is lying on the floor reading.

Mimi Pond crafts a gorgeous, dazzling biography of the Mitford Sisters

Born with pedigrees but without the pocketbooks to match, The Mitfords were certainly no strangers to lies, intrigue, or scandal. Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. All six sisters were weaned on their family’s well-documented upper class eccentricities: a ne’er do well would-be entrepreneur father; a stern, stiff-upper-lipped mother; a revolving door of governesses of varying propriety, all against the backdrop of a crumbling estate falling into disrepair.

A grid of nine cartoon-style portraits, each with a speech or thought bubble containing advice about girls and women, with some referencing boys. The portraits feature different girls, each with distinct facial expressions, hairstyles, and accessories, all in shades of blue.

The sisters grew from cloistered turn-of-the-century country girls into debutantes who would marry into political influence—for better or worse. Is it any wonder that a young, working class Mimi in Southern California becomes enamored with The Mitfords’ downright fanciful rich-and-famous lifestyle? This charming, inventively cartooned, and lovingly researched biography captures the dramatic, over-the-top antics of high society’s strongest personalities as they rubbed elbows with some of history’s most infamous fascists and communists.

Pond’s genius for classic cartooning in the vein of the Vanity Fair caricature and the satirical illustrations of Charles Addams brings the aesthetic decadence of the 1920s and ‘30s to life with effortless aplomb, warts and all.

See Inside

A decorative stage with blue curtains and classical columns, featuring a banner that reads 'First, it's important to...' above the phrase 'Know your MIT FORDS' in stylized text.
A blue illustrated wall with six oval portraits of women, each framed with a decorative border. Above the portraits, a banner reads 'I don't know if...'. The women are named Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. The bottom banner reads '
Illustration of a woman named Nancy with the Eiffel Tower in the background, surrounded by scrolls and books, with handwritten notes about her life and career in comic novels.
Hand-drawn illustration of Deborah, born in 1920, with handwritten notes about her family, her involvement in the Cavendish House in Chesterwoth, her marriage during WWII, and her personality. The drawing features decorative banners and a portrait of
A watercolor sketch of a young girl with short dark hair, wearing a denim jacket with a white collar, standing on a street lined with palm trees and houses under a bright blue sky with a few white clouds. The text at the top reads, "Growing up in Sou
Three comic panels showing a woman and a girl, both saying they want to get out of the house. The first panel is set in San Diego, California, 1968, showing a woman sitting outside on the grass reading a book. She's thinking, "Why am I not hacking ab
A blue-toned illustrated tribute featuring a central drawing of the Mitford home, surrounded by portraits of David Mitford’s family members with their names, indicating his life experiences including being in Ceylon, the Boer War, WWI, relocating to
A romantic illustration depicting a couple at a movie theater, intertwined with whimsical scenes including dancing, walking in Paris, and a bird singing on a balcony, all linked by flowing ribbons with French and English captions about enjoying cinem
A stylized illustration of a naked woman with multiple arms, floating against a dark starry background. Text around her discusses women's confidence, self-realization, body autonomy, and societal gaze.
A blue illustration of a teacup with steam rising from it. The steam contains names of people, and the cup has cartoon portraits of six women labeled with their names. The text on the cup reads "MITFORD SISTERS," and above the steam, there's a banner
A drawing of a young child in a hospital bed with a hospital gown, appearing distressed. Surrounding the child are illustrations of a cartoon rat with a leather jacket and a man with sunglasses, alongside handwritten text and doodles referencing chil
Comic strip in blue tones illustrating a woman walking home in 1969, recalling a previous summer, and encountering a boy on a bicycle named Mitch Mitchell who teases her. The woman is shown with glasses and short dark hair, holding books. The scene i
A cartoon illustration of a woman with an eye in her vagina, wearing a white dress and high heels. She is surrounded by suitcases with text, and the setting appears to be in a hospital or medical environment. The style is sketchy and using shades of