Naomi Mitchison CBE (OD 1911), (née Haldane) followed her brother to the Dragon (then known as Oxford Preparatory School) in 1904, as the only girl. She qualified for the University of Oxford in 1914, via the Oxford higher local examination and entered the Society of Oxford Home Students (later renamed St Anne’s College) to pursue a degree course in science. Before she completed the course, she chose to become a nurse, for the First World War had broken out, and she joined a Voluntary Aid Detachment at St Thomas’s Hospital, London.
She was a Scottish novelist and poet. Often called the doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote over 90 books of historical fiction, science fiction, travel writing and autobiography.
Naomi 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), set in Gaul in the 1st century BC, 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. She is well-known for ‘The Corn King and the Spring Queen’ (1931), which treats three different societies, including a wholly fictional one, and explores themes of sexuality that were daring for that day.
In 1952, Naomi went to Moscow as a member of the Authors’ World Peace Appeal. She frequently went to Africa, especially to Botswana. ‘Mucking Around’ (1981) best describes her haphazard travels in five continents over 50 years. Later works included further historical novels: ‘The Bull Calves’ (1947) and ‘The Young Alexander the Great’ (1960). She also turned to fantasy, such as ‘Graeme and the Dragon’ (1954), science fiction such as Memoirs of a ‘Spacewoman’ (1962) and ‘Solution Three’ (1975), fantasy such as the humorous Arthurian novel ‘To the Chapel Perilous’ (1955), non-fiction such as ‘African Heroes’ (1968), and also children’s novels, poetry, travel and a three-volume autobiography.
After her husband’s death, Naomi 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.
She was appointed CBE in 1981.