Naomi Mitchison
Encyclopedia
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(née Haldane; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
novelist and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
. 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).
Childhood and family background
Naomi Margaret Haldane was born at EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, the daughter and younger child of the physiologist John Scott Haldane and his wife (Louisa) Kathleen Trotter. Naomi's parents came from different political backgrounds, her father being a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
and her mother from a Tory
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
and pro-imperialist family. However, both families were of landed stock, and the Haldane family had been feudal barons of Gleneagles
Gleneagles
Gleneagles may refer to the following:*Gleneagles, Scotland**The July 2005 G8 Summit held at Gleneagles, Scotland*Gleneagles Agreement*Gleneagles Hotel, Auchterarder*Gleneagles Hotel, Torquay, the inspiration for Fawlty Towers....
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
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
J.B.S. Haldane (1892 – 1964), but in her youth her paternal uncle Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, twice Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
(from 1912-1915 under Herbert Henry Asquith, and in 1924 during the first Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government of Ramsay Macdonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
), was better known.
Naomi was educated at the Dragon School
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and began a science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
degree at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, but gave this up to become a VAD
Voluntary Aid Detachment
The Voluntary Aid Detachment was a voluntary organisation providing field nursing services, mainly in hospitals, in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The organisation's most important periods of operation were during World War I and World War II.The...
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
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
Gilbert Richard Mitchison
Dick Mitchison
Gilbert Richard Mitchison, Baron Mitchison CBE QC, otherwise known as Dick Mitchison , was a British Labour politician....
(23 March 1894– 14 February 1970), who was a close friend of her brother Jack. He was then on leave from the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
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
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, and eventually a Life Peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
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
Denis Mitchison
Denis Anthony "Denny" Mitchison CMG is a British bacteriologist.- Biography :Mitchison was born in 1919, the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi . His uncle was the biologist J.B.S. Haldane and his grandfather the physiologist John Scott Haldane...
(born 1919) later a professor of bacteriology
Bacteriology
Bacteriology is the study of bacteria. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classification, and characterization of bacterial species...
, Murdoch
Murdoch Mitchison
John Murdoch Mitchison FRS, FRSE was a British zoologist, the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi . The biologist J.B.S. Haldane was his uncle, and the physiologist John Scott Haldane was his maternal grandfather...
(born 1922), and Avrion
Avrion Mitchison
The Honourable Avrion "Av" Mitchison FRS is a British zoologist and immunologist.- Biography :Mitchison was born in 1928, the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi . His uncle was the biologist J.B.S...
(born 1928), both professors of zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
. 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
Carradale
Carradale is a picturesque village on the east side of Kintyre, overlooking the Kilbrannan Sound and the west coast of the Isle of Arran, approximately 14 miles from Campbeltown...
in Kintyre
Kintyre
Kintyre is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The region stretches approximately 30 miles , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south, to East Loch Tarbert in the north...
, where Naomi died in 1999.
Literary career
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 GaulGaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
during the Gallic Wars
Gallic Wars
The Gallic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged by the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against several Gallic tribes. They lasted from 58 BC to 51 BC. The Gallic Wars culminated in the decisive Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, in which a complete Roman victory resulted in the expansion of the...
of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, and her second novel Cloud Cuckoo Land (1925) set in 5th century BC Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
during the Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...
. 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). Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award...
described it as "a lost classic".
Later works included more historical novels The Bull Calves (1947) about the 1745 Jacobite Rising
Jacobite rising
The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...
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
Denis Mitchison
Denis Anthony "Denny" Mitchison CMG is a British bacteriologist.- Biography :Mitchison was born in 1919, the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi . His uncle was the biologist J.B.S. Haldane and his grandfather the physiologist John Scott Haldane...
); science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
such as Memoirs of a Spacewoman
Memoirs of a Spacewoman
Memoirs of a Spacewoman is a science fiction novel by Naomi Mitchison, a sister of the famous biologist J.B.S. Haldane. It was first published in 1962 by Victor Gollancz Ltd.-Contents:...
(1962) and Solution Three (1975);
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
such as the humorous Arthurian novel To the Chapel Perilous (1955), non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
such as African Heroes (1968), together with children's novels, poetry, travel and a three-volume autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
.
Undoubtedly her most controversial work, We Have Been Warned was published in 1935 and explored sexual behaviour, including rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. The book was rejected by various publishers, was extensively rewritten to make it more acceptable to publishers, and was still subject to censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
. Maxim Lieber
Maxim Lieber
Maxim Lieber was a prominent American literary agent in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. Whittaker Chambers named him as an accomplice in 1949, and Lieber fled first to Mexico and then Poland not long after Alger Hiss's conviction in 1950.- Early years :Lieber was born in Warsaw, Poland,...
served as her literary editor in 1935.
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
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
and she was one of the proof readers of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
.
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 regimeNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in Germany and Austria. She stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
candidate for the Scottish Universities in 1935
Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1935
The Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1935 was a by-election held from 17 June to 22 June 1935 for the Combined Scottish Universities, a university constituency of the British House of Commons.- Vacancy :...
, 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
Carradale
Carradale is a picturesque village on the east side of Kintyre, overlooking the Kilbrannan Sound and the west coast of the Isle of Arran, approximately 14 miles from Campbeltown...
in Scotland where they spent the rest of their lives. During the war she was active in farming there. Her name was on Orwell's list
Orwell's list
Orwell's list, prepared in 1949 by the English author George Orwell, shortly before he died, comprises names of notable writers and other individuals he considered to be unsuitable as possible writers for the Information Research Department's anti-communist propaganda activities.-Background:The...
, a list of people which George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
prepared in March 1949 for the Information Research Department
Information Research Department
The Information Research Department, founded in 1948 by Christopher Mayhew MP, was a department of the British Foreign Office set up to counter Russian propaganda and infiltration, particularly amongst the western labour movement....
, a propaganda unit set up at the Foreign Office by the Labour government. Orwell considered these people to have pro-communist leanings and therefore to be inappropriate to write for the IRD.
Mitchison's advocacy continued in other ways. She acted a spokeswoman for the island communities of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and became an advisor to the Bakgatla tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
of Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
.
Mitchison was a Life Fellow of the Eugenics Society
Eugenics Society (UK)
The Galton Institute is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. Its aims are "to promote the public understanding of human heredity and to facilitate informed debate about the ethical issues raised by advances in reproductive technology"....
. She was also a vocal campaigner for women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, advocating birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
, and was also active in local government in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
(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.
Later life
Carradale
Carradale is a picturesque village on the east side of Kintyre, overlooking the Kilbrannan Sound and the west coast of the Isle of Arran, approximately 14 miles from Campbeltown...
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.
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)
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)
- 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 PressVirago PressVirago is a British publishing company founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil to publish books by women writers. Both new works and reissued books by neglected authors have featured on the imprint's list....
, 1985; Penguin BooksPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
, 1987; Small Beer PressSmall Beer PressSmall Beer Press is a publisher of fantasy and literary fiction, based in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was founded by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link in 2000 and publishes novels, collections, and anthologies. It also publishes the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, chapbooks, the Peapod Classics...
, 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 SpacewomanMemoirs of a SpacewomanMemoirs of a Spacewoman is a science fiction novel by Naomi Mitchison, a sister of the famous biologist J.B.S. Haldane. It was first published in 1962 by Victor Gollancz Ltd.-Contents:...
(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)
Collections
- The Brave Nurse: And Other Stories
- The Fourth Pig (1936)
- Five Men and a Swan (1957)
- 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)
Non-fiction
- Vienna Diary (1934)
- 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)
Note on her title
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, 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 Carradale along with the rest of the family for huge family gatherings and holidays.
Sources
- Naomi Mitchison: A Biography by Jill Benton (London: Pandora, 1990)
- The Nine Lives of Naomi Mitchison by Jenni CalderJenni CalderJenni Calder is a Scottish literary historian, and arts establishment figure. She was formerly married to Angus Calder, and is the daughter of David Daiches. She also once ran the Edinburgh Book Festival.-Some works:...
(ViragoVirago PressVirago is a British publishing company founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil to publish books by women writers. Both new works and reissued books by neglected authors have featured on the imprint's list....
, 1997) - Leoni Caldecott, "Naomi Mitchison". In: Women of Our Century (London: Aerial Books, 1984), 11-34.
- Maroula Joannou, "Naomi Mitchison at One Hundred". Women: A Cultural Review 9.3 (1998), 292-304.
- Anita Obermeier, "Postmodernism and the Press in Naomi Mitchison's To the Chapel Perilous". Postmodern Medievalisms, ed. Richard Utz and Jesse G. Swan (Cambridge: Brewer, 2004), pp. 193-207.
External links
- Literary Encyclopedia detailed entry which says she had seven children and that she received her CBE in 1981
- Guardian obituary which states she had six children, and that she received her CBE in 1985
- Naomi Mitchison - a queen, a saint and a shaman, by Neil Ascherton, Guardian 17 January 1999
- Spartacus entry
- The Scotsman biographical profile
- another entry from Canongate publishers
- Interview 15 April 1989 with Naomi Mitchison, focusing on her Arthurian novel "To the Chapel Perilous" (1955)
- Gilbert "Dick" Mitchison entry
- Haldane genealogy her grandparents are Robert Haldane of Cloan (1805-1877) and his second wife Mary Elizabeth Burdon-Sanderson (d 1925)
- Partial Bibliography
- some literary information, and useful links
- British Honours
- The Diary Junction Blog
- Diary Junction website with links