Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Naomi Mitchison
-
Standard Name: Mitchison, Naomi
Birth Name: Naomi Mary Margaret Haldane
Nickname: Nou
Nickname: Me
Married Name: Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison
Titled: Lady Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison
During her life of over a century (she narrowly missed living from the nineteenth into the twenty-first) NM
averaged almost a book a year. She published novels, short stories, diaries, poetry, travel books, essays, and writing for children, all of them informed with the same vivid interest in the world around her and burning desire for its social betterment.
Her old friends included Naomi Mitchison
(who shared her love of Africa), the composer Philip Glass
, and her biographer and executor Michael Holroyd
.
Murphy, Kim. “Lessing will have the last word”. Edmonton Journal, p. D3.
D3
Kennedy, Maev. “Doris Lessing dies aged 94”. theguardian.com.
Friends from HW
's time at Somerville
included Maude Clarke
, whom she had known as a child and whose Oxford position had been one of the incentives to go there, and archaelogist Helen Lorimer
Friends, Associates
Bessie Head
In Francistown she again was able to draw on the generosity of friends who perceived her literary potential: Nini Ettlinger
, who gave her, under the appearance of a loan, the money to buy a...
Friends, Associates
Amabel Williams-Ellis
Shortly before coming out into society, Amabel and her family were invited to visit the Haldane family in Scotland. Here, she began a friendship with future scientist J. B. S. Haldane
to the envy...
Friends, Associates
Winifred Holtby
Through her work with the Six Point Group
and Time and Tide, WH
met the founder of both, Margaret Haig, Lady Rhondda
. Their professional relationship grew into a friendship, and WH
dedicated her...
SB
met many writers during this stay in England. Her old friend Margery Spring Rice
brought her together with Naomi Mitchison
, who had recently approached her by letter.
Mitchison, Naomi. You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940. Gollancz.
127-9
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Jenkins
EJ
was mildly satirical about the left-wing and anti-monarchical tendencies of Naomi Mitchison
(a well-known author of the times)
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson.
105
and the allegedly somewhat self-important Vera Brittain
(who, felt Jenkins, had let the...
Friends, Associates
Stella Benson
This summer she spent a holiday at Varengeville in Normandy, with Naomi Mitchison
. She also met Sydney Schiff
(at Chesham in Buckinghamshire), and on 31 August 1925 had her first meeting with...
Friends, Associates
Stevie Smith
SS
developed lasting friendships with Naomi Mitchison
and Rosamond Lehmann
, both of whom reviewed her work. She was also close to US poet Naomi Replansky
, with whom she corresponded before they met in 1969.
Smith, Stevie. Me Again. Editors Barbera, Jack and William McBrien, Vintage.
Diski, Jenny. “Doris and Me”. London Review of Books, Vol.
37
, No. 1, pp. 21-3.
21
Fictionalization
Sappho
In the twentieth century Sappho
continued full of potential for poets and prose-writers. Naomi Mitchison
fictionalises her supposed school; Eavan Boland
takes her as guide on an underworld journey (as Dante took Virgil); Jeanette Winterson
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Mitchison, Naomi. What do you think yourself? Scottish short stories. Paul Harris, 1982.
Mitchison, Naomi. When the Bough Breaks, and Other Stories. Cape, 1924.
Mitchison, Naomi. You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940. Gollancz, 1979.