you never met jessica mitford?>> no, i never met her. >> are you familiar -- >> i met her a number of times. that is why i wanted to talk to about it? >> how did you meet her? under what circumstance? >> i wife was a writer and she and jessica had the same editor. he used to give literary parties, i guess you can call them literary parties. they were parties, and so i saw her at those places at those times. my wife knew her i think more than i did at the time. my wife is dead and jessica is dead and the editor is dead. i am still here. >> what was your impression of her? >> well, she was very likable, and i remember my wife asked her one time if she could recommend a hotel. we had never been there before, recommend a hotel in london. she looked very stricken with the idea that anybody could stay in a hotel. people didn't stay in hotels, they stayed in big houses. it was france in big houses. another time, as she was writing a book, think it was going to be the american way of dying as a matter fact. anyway, it was

we are talking about jessica mitford. go ahead. >> caller: did you say something about jessica mitford's children? >> yeah. she has two children and both of them will be appearing with me on monday night at busboys and poets in washington d.c.. they have been very supportive of the book. and then, had for many years an organization, which collected tml's across the united states or wherever he could find them. and sent them to havana to substitute for a lot of the pmo's that were in bad shape there. so to help the musicians of cuba and binky has been a longtime civil rights activist. and has always been engaged in issues of social justice. she is now continuing that. they are both great. >> what kind of mother was jessica mitford? >> well according to binky she was a fabulous mother. according to resolve, she always doubted being the best mother because she was always out. she was always doing work. she was always fraternizing or writing but binky said they always had meals, they always had a sense of family continuity an

been our guest was 45 minutes, herb most recent book is "irrepressible" the life and times of jessica mitford. leslie brody book.com is the web site. professor brody thank you. >> jena having a. >> we have a couple more hours of live call-in programs for miami coming up. by the way everything we have aired today on booktv from miami will re-air at midnight eastern time so you will be able to see everything. also there is a couple more webcast going on at otb.org. these are some light events happening at miami-dade college here at miami book fair. right now, and he is talking about the 50 funniest american writers. that is the webcast at chapman hall and you can watch that of otb.org. if you stick with us on booktv on c-span2 you will be able to talk with author, john avlon next about his new book, "deadline artists" america's greatest newspaper columns. we will be right back. on your screen as the tower in the center of the university of texas at austin campus. booktv has been on location here at the university of texas conducting interviews with some of their professors who are also authors.