Naomi Mitchison

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Naomi Mitchison on the cover of the biography by Jenni Calder
Naomi Mitchison on the cover of the biography by Jenni Calder

Naomi Margaret Mitchison, CBE (née Haldane; 1 November 1897 Edinburgh – 11 January 1999 at Carradale) was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1981; she was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, CBE since 5 October 1964 (but never apparently used that style herself).

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Childhood and Family Background

Naomi Margaret Haldane was the daughter and younger child of the physiologist John Scott Haldane (1860 – 1936) CH, FRS and his wife (Louisa) Kathleen Trotter. Naomi's parents came from different political backgrounds, her father being a Liberal and her mother from a Tory and pro-imperialist family. However, both families were of landed stock, and the Haldane family had been feudal barons of Gleneagles since the 13th century, but were nevertheless known for their achievements in other spheres. Today, the best known member of the family is probably Naomi's elder brother, the biologist J.B.S. Haldane (1892 – 1964), but in her youth her paternal uncle Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, twice Lord Chancellor (from 1912-1915 under Herbert Henry Asquith, and in 1924 during the first Labour government of Ramsay Macdonald), was better known.

Naomi was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford and began a science degree at the University of Oxford, but gave this up to become a VAD nurse during the First World War. She returned to her studies after catching scarlet fever, and restarted her studies in science (as a home student) at what is now St Anne's College, Oxford.

In 1916 Naomi married the barrister Gilbert Richard Mitchison (23 March 1894– 14 February 1970), who was a close friend of her brother Jack. He was then on leave from the Western Front of World War I, and like her, he came from a well-connected and wealthy family. Her husband became a QC, then a Labour politician, and eventually a Life Peer as Baron Mitchison in August 1964. They had seven children. Dick and Naomi Mitchison's four sons were Geoffrey (1918-1927, who died of meningitis) Denis (born 1919) later a professor of bacteriology, Murdoch (born 1922), and Avrion (born 1928), both professors of zoology. Their three daughters were Lois, Valentine, and Clemency (who died in 1940 shortly after her birth).

They lived from 1939 at Carradale House at Carradale in Kintyre, where Naomi died in 1999.

[edit] Literary career

Naomi Mitchison , c1920s
Naomi Mitchison , c1920s

Mitchison was a prolific writer, completing more than 90 books in her lifetime, across a multitude of styles and genres. These include historical novels such as her first novel The Conquered (1923) a story set in 1st century BC Gaul during the Gallic Wars of Julius Caesar, and her second novel Cloud Cuckoo Land (1925) set in 5th century BC Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War. Her best work is considered The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931) which treats three different societies including a wholly fictional one, and also frankly explores themes of sexuality (daring for its day).

Later works included more historical novels The Bull Calves (1947) about the 1745 Jacobite Rising and The Young Alexander the Great (1960). Mitchison also turned to fantasy such as Graeme and the Dragon (1954; Graeme was her grandson through Denis); science fiction such as Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962) and Solution Three (1975); non-fiction such as African Heroes (1968), together with children's novels, poetry, travel and a three-volume autobiography.

Undoubtedly her most controversial work, We Have Been Warned was published in 1935 and explored sexual behaviour, including rape and abortion. The book was rejected by various publishers, was extensively rewritten to make it more acceptable to publishers, and was still subject to censorship.

After her husband's death, Mitchison wrote several memoirs, published as separate titles between 1973 and 1985. She was also a good friend of the writer J.R.R. Tolkien and she was one of the proof readers of The Lord of the Rings.

[edit] Activism

Mitchison, like her brother, was a committed Socialist in the 1930s. She visited the Soviet Union in 1932, and wrote We Have Been Warned about her experiences during that trip. The book was not successful, nor was her fictionalizing of stories about Jews living under the Nazi regime in Germany and Austria. She stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate for the Scottish Universities in 1935, at a time when universities were allowed to elect MPs. Eventually, as her political candidacy and her pro-Left writings both failed, she gradually became disenchanted with the Left. In 1939, when World War II broke out, Dick and Naomi Mitchison moved to Carradale in Scotland where they spent the rest of their lives.

Mitchison's advocacy continued in other ways. She acted a spokeswoman for the island communities of Scotland, and became an advisor to the Bakgatla tribe of Botswana.

Mitchison was a Life Fellow of the Eugenics Society. She was also a vocal campaigner for women's rights, advocating birth control, and was also active in local government in Scotland (1947 – 1976). Her own lack of knowledge about birth control (as stated in her memoirs) led to her interest in the causes of birth control and abortion. Mitchison helped found the first birth control clinics in London. Today, she is best known for her advocacy of feminism and her tackling of then-taboo subjects in her writing.

[edit] Later life

Statue of Naomi Mitchison, located at ?
Statue of Naomi Mitchison, located at ?

On 5 October 1964, Dick Mitchison was created a life peer as Baron Mitchison of Carradale in the County of Argyll on retirement for his political work. His wife Naomi thus became Lady Mitchison (as the wife of a Life Peer), but apparently chose not to use the title. Her husband died in 1970, but Naomi remained active as a writer well into her eighties. She was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1981. Continuing to write into her eighties, she died at Carradale at the age of 101. She was survived by her three younger sons (all scientists) and her two elder daughters, and by several other descendants.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Biographies of Mitchison

  • Naomi Mitchison: A Biography by Jill Benton (London: Pandora, 1990)
  • The Nine Lives of Naomi Mitchison by Jenni Calder (Virago, 1997)

[edit] Autobiography

Mitchison's autobiography is in three parts.

  • Small Talk: Memories of an Edwardian Childhood (1973)
  • All Change Here: Girlhood and Marriage (1975)
  • - published together as: As It Was: An Autobiography 1897-1918 (1975)
  • You May Well Ask: A Memoir, 1920-1940 (1979)

[edit] Novels

  • The Conquered (1923)
  • Cloud Cuckoo Land (1925)
  • The Laburnum Branch (1926)
  • The Fairy who Couldn't Tell a Lie (1927)
  • Anna Comnena (1928)
  • Black Sparta (1928)
  • Nix-Nought-Nothing (1928)
  • The Hostages (1930)
  • The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931)
  • Boys and Girls and Gods (1931)
  • The Prince of Freedom (1931)
  • Powers of Light (1932)
  • The Delicate Fire (1933)
  • We Have Been Warned (1935)
  • The Fourth Pit (1936)
  • An End and a Beginning (1937)
  • The Blood of the Martyrs (1939; reprinted in 1989)
  • The Bull Calves (1947)
  • The Big House (1950)
  • Travel Light (Faber and Faber, 1952; Virago Press, 1985; Penguin Books, 1987; Small Beer Press, 2005)
  • Graeme and the Dragon (1954
  • The Land the Ravens Found (1955)
  • To the Chapel Perilous (1955)
  • Little Boxes (1956)
  • Behold your King (1957)
  • The Young Alexander the Great (1960)
  • Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962)
  • Ketse and the Chief (1965)
  • Friends and Enemies (1966)
  • Big Surprise (1967)
  • Family at Ditlabeng (1969)
  • Don't Look Back (1969)
  • Far Harbour (1969)
  • Sun and Moon (1970)
  • Cleopatra's People (1972)
  • Sunrise Tomorrow: A Story of Botswana (1973)
  • A Life for Africa: The Story of Bram Fischer (1973)
  • Danish Teapot (1973)
  • Oil for the Highlands? (1974)
  • Solution Three (1975) (with Susan Merrill Squier) http://feministpress.org/book/?GCOI=55861100077740
  • All Change Here (1975)
  • Snake! (1976)
  • Two Magicians (with Dick Mitchison, 1979)
  • The Vegetable War (1980)
  • Mucking Around (1981)
  • Not by Bread Alone (1983)
  • Early in Orcadia (1987)
  • Images of Africa (1987)
  • As It Was (1988)
  • The Oath-takers (1991)
  • Sea-green Ribbons (1991)
  • The Dark Twin (with Marion Campbell, 1998)

[edit] Collections

  • The Brave Nurse: And Other Stories
  • When the Bough Breaks and Other Stories (1924; reprinted by Pomona Press, 2006)
  • Barbarian Stories (1929)
  • Beyond This Limit: Selected Shorter Fiction of Naomi Mitchison (1935)
  • Cleansing of the Knife: And Other Poems (poems) (1979)
  • What Do You Think Yourself: and Other Scottish Short Stories (1982)
  • A Girl Must Live: Stories and Poems (poems) (1990)

[edit] Plays

  • The Price of Freedom. A play in three acts (with Lewis Gielgud Mitchison, 1931)

[edit] Non-fiction

  • Return to the Fairy Hill (1966)
  • African Heroes (1968)
  • The Moral Basis of Politics (1971)
  • The Africans: From the Earliest Times to the Present (1971)
  • Small Talk (1973)
  • Margaret Cole, 1893-1980 (1982)
  • Among You Taking Notes... (1985)
  • Rising Public Voice: Women in Politics Worldwide (1995)

[edit] Note on her title

She apparently never used it in life.

Her title came from her husband, who was made a Life Peer in 1964. Naomi Mitchison was not properly entitled to be called Lady Naomi Mitchison (although The Guardian and some other news sources make or perpetuate this error), but was rather Baroness Mitchison of Carradale formally, or less formally Lady Mitchison. She apparently preferred to be known as Naomi Mitchison. Her grandchildren and great grandchildren called her Nou. They often went to Caradale along with the rest of the family for huge family gatherings and holidays.

[edit] References


[edit] External links

Biographical profiles for Naomi Mitchison

Biographical profiles for her husband Gilbert "Dick" Mitchison (later Lord Mitchison QC]

Biographical profile for her father John Haldane CH

  • Haldane genealogy her grandparents are Robert Haldane of Cloan (1805-1877) and his second wife Mary Elizabeth Burdon-Sanderson (d 1925)

Bibliographies/ focus on Naomi as a writer

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