Naomi Mitchison

(born November 1897 - died January 1999) - Kintyre

Born Naomi Margaret Haldane in 1897 in Edinburgh, Naomi Mitchison was a Scottish novelist and poet who wrote over 90 books in a wide range of genres, from historical, children's and science fiction. Her father, John Scott Haldane, was a physiologist. She was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, as well as at home by a governess. She started a science degree at Oxford University, but suspended her studies to become a VAD nurse during WWI. After catching scarlet fever, she returned to her studies.

Mitchison married barrister Gilbert Richard Mitchison in 1916, who later became an MP and then Lord. Together they had seven children, and lived in Carradale House on the Mull of Kintyre from 1939. Politically left wing, she stood as a Labour Party candidate in 1935, but was unsuccessful. She was a member of the Argyll County Council and later the Highland and Island Advisory Council. She was also a feminist, and wrote widely on issues of sex, birth control and rape.

She was a prolific writer, and her first novel was The Conquered, was published in 1923. Her most successful books include The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931), Early in Orcadia (1987) and the controversial novel in We Have Been Warned, which was subject to censorship (1935). Many of her earlier novels were set in the classical era, and she also wrote historical Aurthurian fantasies such as To the Chapel Perilous (1955). She wrote a three-volume autobiography between 1973 and 1985. Naomi Mitchison travelled widely, and wrote about her travels and set some novels in Africa.

As a journalist, she wrote for newspapers and magazines such as The New Statesman and The Guardian.

In 1981 she was appointed a CBE. She never took the title Lady, despite being married to a life peer. Naomi Mitchison died in 1999, aged 101, at her house in Carradale. A biography of her, The Nine Lives of Naomi Mitchison, was written by Jenni Calder.

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Anna Comnena
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
Anna Comnena was an educated princess in 11th-century Constantinople, the daughter of the Emperor Alexius. She was expected to succeed him, & raised as heir, but her hopes were dashed by the birth of a brother. Naomi Mitchison combines her story with that of her father, & the whole civilisation of the Eastern Empire.
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Behold Your King
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
In this unusual and accomplished novel, Naomi Mitchison retells in realistic terms and colloquial dialogue the story of the passion and death of Jesus, hour by hour, as it unfolds over the 24 hours of Good Friday.
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Beyond This Limit: Selected Shorter Fiction
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
Naomi Mitchison published her first novel in 1923, and in more than 70 succeeding books she produced an extraordinary output, especially in novels and short stories. This selection of her shorter fiction illustrates her range and achievement over more than 50 years.
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The Big House
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
All the children hate Su because she is from the Big House. All that is except Winkie, the fisherman's son, and together he and Su become involved in a dangerous mission to rescue a magic piper from the clutches of an evil fairy prince.
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Cleopatra's People
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
Eschewing Plutarch and Shakespeare's tale of Mark Antony's fatal romance, Naomi Mitchison's 'Cleopatra's People' starts with the next generation, with the children of the Queen and of Charmian, one of her 'mates'. The impact of Cleopatra's life and personality is reflected through them, and their efforts to follow in her wake.
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Cloud Cuckoo Land
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
Ancient Greek history and politics fascinated Naomi Mitchison, and in particular the long antagonism or rivalry of Athens and Sparta. In this, her second novel, she investigates the two city states through Alxenor, a young man from the tiny island of Poieessa, which changes hands along with the balance of power.
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The Conquered
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
Naomi Mitchison's first novel, 'The Conquered' follows Julius Caesar's bloody and gradual conquest of Gaul. Written just five years after the end of the First World War, Mitchison draws parallels between the struggles between the Romans and the Gauls and the more contemporary conflict between the Irish and the British Empire.
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Essays And Journalism
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
Volume two of Naomi Mitchison's 'Essays and Journalism' is devoted to the West Highland village of Carradale, to which she moved in the late 1930s. She writes about many aspects of Carradale: her farm, the local fishing industry, the big garden which was particularly dear to her heart, and 'the village and the Big House'.
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Lobsters On The Agenda
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - House of Lochar
A series of meetings, both formal and informal, are the settings in which the local people of a West Highland village try to resolve their differences over public issues. Not least is the question of who stole the lobsters.
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Memoirs Of A Spacewoman
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
Set in a utopian future, 'Memoirs of a Spacewoman' stars Mary - our central character - as she recalls her career as a communications specialist on various space expeditions. The novel, structured around Mary's different voyages, also centres on her sexual desires and her pregnancies.
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Naomi Mitchison's Early In Orcadia, The Big House And Travel Light
Moira Burgess - Paperback - Association for Scottish Literary Studies
Born in Edinburgh in 1897, Naomi Haldane - later Mitchison - would go on to become one of Scotland's most important literary voices of the 20th century. This book looks at three of her most significant works, discussing topics such as historical context, characterisation and use of language.
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Small Talk: Memories Of An Edwardian Childhood
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
This text presents a vivid picture of the childhood years of Naomi Mitchison. A life in Oxford before the First World War, a child's-eye view of the family, friends, servants, pets - and holidays in Scotland and Cornwall.
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Vienna Diary 1934
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
On February 24th, 1934, shortly after the civil war in Austria and the defeat of the Socialists, Naomi Mitchison left England on a visit to Vienna in order to do what she could to relieve the terrible distress of the defeated. In this day-by-day diary, she tells us what she saw, did and felt.
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When We Become Men
Naomi Mitchison - Paperback - Kennedy & Boyd
'When We Become Men' deals with the contemporary fight for equality across southern Africa and the struggle against apartheid. Naomi Mitchison provides a vivid and clear account of a troubled people in transition, which helps the reader to understand and empathise with the birth-pangs of a new, post-imperial Africa.