Writers' portraits - Naomi Mitchison

    Naomi Mitchison by Percy Wyndham Lewis (Scottish National Portrait Gallery).

    I wonder how much Naomi Mitchison is read nowadays - I rarely see her mentioned. I had a copy of The Corn King and the Spring Queen at one time but fear I sent it - unread - to the charity shop during a purge of the shelves a while ago; I'd probably make a better fist of reading it now.

    Here is the author on Desert Island Discs in April 1991, aged 93, where she is described by the host Sue Lawley, as "radical, energetic and versatile" and a woman who "devoted her life to new ideas"; her choice of music ranges from Wagner to "Ye canny shove yer Granny aff a bus". Her literary career encompassed around 90 books across several genres, but as she says in the interview, she could write anywhere and at any time (including on London Underground's Circle Line). Here is an affectionate word-sketch of her, and below a 1974 portrait by Clifton Pugh.

Click here and scroll down beyond this one for the earlier posts in the Writers' Portraits series.