Naomi Mitchison

Naomi Mitchison's adventures span the 20th century. This is the story of how she integrated her public and creative life as a prominent author and political activist with her private and intimate life as a woman. Brought up to be an Edwardian lady, she became a feminist and socialist maverick in the late twenties. Together with her husband Dick Mitchison, Labour MP then Lord, she explored the by-ways of what is now called an "open" marriage. She has published more than 80 books which include science fiction, books about Botswana which were banned in South Africa, children's stories, women's quest novels set in ancient civilizations, and Scottish novels merging Celtic myth and socialism. She has also fought for sexual rights for women, for Birmingham's industrial poor, Highland farmers and fishermen, and for the Bakgatla, a tribe living on the fringe of the Kalahari desert in South Africa.