Focus on Carradale

one of Scotland’s less-visited treasures

Part2- Theliteraryconnection

PaulWhite

As an author, I am fascinated by the life and times of writers and authors who have gone before me.

One of those, and partly why I have a love for Carradale, is that Carradale House was the home of Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison (née Haldane), an author of over 90 books including Historic novels, Science fiction, and Travellogs. She was also a political activist, embracing Scottish nationalism.

Following is an abridged version of Naomi’s life and Scottish connections

Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness

Mitchison CBE, Scottish novelist and poet was often called a doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote over 90 books of historical and science fiction, travel writing, and autobiography.

Born in Edinburgh, Naomi Mary Margaret Haldane was 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, and her mother from a Conservative, proimperialist family. However, both were of landed stock; the Haldane family had been feudal barons of Gleneagles since the 13th century. Today the best-known member of the family is probably Naomi's elder brother, the biologist

J. B. S. Haldane but in her youth, her paternal uncle Richard Burdon Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, twice Lord Chancellor (from 1912 to 1915 under H. H. Asquith, and in 1924 during the first Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald), was better known.

Naomi followed her brother to the Oxford Preparatory School and was the only girl there. From 1911, she was tutored at home by a governess. She qualified for the University of Oxford in 1914. Like her father

John Scott Haldane and elder brother J. B. S. Haldane, Naomi Haldane initially pursued a scientific career. From 1908, she and her brother investigated Mendelian genetics. Their 1915 publication was the first demonstration of genetic linkage in mammals. However, whilst she was a diploma student at the Society of Oxford Home Students (later St Anne's College, Oxford), the outbreak of the First World War changed her interest to nursing.

Naomi was a prolific writer of 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 BCE, during the Gallic Wars of Julius Caesar, and her second novel Cloud Cuckoo Land (1925) set in 5th-century BCE Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War. Her best work is thought to be 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 in her day. Terri Windling called it "a lost classic".

Literary critic Geoffrey Sadler stated of Mitchison's historical fiction: "Based on her early writings, she is unquestionably one of the great historical novelists."

Undoubtedly her most controversial work, We Have Been Warned, was published in 1935, based on a journey to the Soviet Union. In it, she explored sexual behaviour, including rape and abortion. The book was rejected by various publishers and ultimately censored. She approached first her friend Victor Gollancz, who flatly turned her down, observing that "publication of the book would cause a real outcry." The book was extensively rewritten to make it more acceptable to publishers, yet was still subject to censorship. On publication, it was universally despised for its depiction of rape, free love, and abortion that "alienated readers on the left and horrified those on the

Naomi’s best work is thought to be

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 in her day.

Read now https://amzn.to/41jpyLT political right.".

Later works included further historical novels: The Bull Calves (1947) about the Jacobite rising of 1745.

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 proofreaders of The Lord of the Rings.

She stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate for the Scottish Universities in 1935, at a time when universities were still allowed to elect MPs. Eventually, as her political candidacy and her pro-Left writings had failed, she gradually became disenchanted with the Left. At this time she became politically attracted to Scottish Nationalism and increasingly wrote on specifically Scottish issues and themes. Her advocacy continued in other ways. She became a spokeswoman for the island communities of Scotland. Her keen interest in Scotland's problems led to her serving on Argyll County Council and the Highlands and Islands Development Council. She became a Labour representative on Argyll County Council. She served on the Highland Panel and