Books by Naomi Mitchison

A unique wartime diary, written for the mass-observation project, by the doyenne of Scottish literature and celebrated left-wing political thinker Naomi Mitchison.

An enchanting collection that introduces the author and activist Naomi Mitchison to a new generation of readersThe Fourth Pig, originally published in 1936, is a wide-ranging and fascinating collection of fairy tales, poems, and ballads. Droll and sad, spirited and apprehensive, The Fourth Pig reflects the hopes and forebodings of its era but also resonates with those of today. It is a testament to the talents of Naomi Mitchison (1897-1999), who was an irrepressible phenomenon-a significant Scottish political activist as well as a prolific author. Mitchison's work, exemplified by the tales in this superb new edition, is stamped with her characteristic sharp wit, magical invention, and vivid political and social consciousness.Mitchison rewrites well-known stories such as "e;Hansel and Gretel"e; and "e;The Little Mermaid,"e; and she picks up the tune of a ballad with admiring fidelity to form, as in "e;Mairi MacLean and the Fairy Man."e; Her experimental approach is encapsulated in the title story, which is a dark departure from "e;The Three Little Pigs."e; And in the play Kate Crackernuts, the author dramatizes in charms and songs a struggle against the subterranean powers of fairies who abduct humans for their pleasure. Marina Warner, the celebrated scholar of fairy tales and fiction author, provides an insightful introduction that reveals why Mitchison's writing remains significant.The Fourth Pig is a literary rediscovery, a pleasure that will reawaken interest in a remarkable writer and personality.

The early stories are set in ancient Greece, like many before them. But here the author effectively says farewell to that setting with accounts of the worlds of Sappho and of 'Lovely Mantinea'. This book illustrates a fundamental change in his work.

Naomi Mitchison's 1947 novel about events two hundred years earlier - in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 - as a family, based on her own ancestors, gathers at Gleneagles.

Eschewing Plutarch and Shakespeare's tale of Mark Antony's fatal romance, Naomi Mitchison's 'Cleopatra's People' starts with the next generation, with the children of the Queen and of Charmian, one of her 'mates'. The impact of Cleopatra's life and personality is reflected through them, and their efforts to follow in her wake.

Anna Comnena is described as the first female historian, the author of her father's celebratory biography. She was an educated princess in eleventh-century Constantinople, the daughter of the Emperor Alexius. She was expected to succeed him, and raised as heir, but her hopes were dashed by the birth of a younger brother.

Mitchison's first novel, published in 1923, five years after the end of World War I. It is about wars, but historic ones - Julius Caesar's bloody and gradual conquest of Gaul; and Instead of Caesar's lists of victories and setbacks, it is abut the impact of these wars on her Gallic hero Meromic. With an Introduction by Isobel Murray.

On February 24th, 1934 - shortly after the civil war in Austria and the defeat of the Socialists - Naomi Mitchison left England on a visit to Vienna in order to do what she could to relieve the terrible distress of the defeated. This is her record.

Retells in realistic terms and colloquial dialogue the story of the passion and death of Jesus, hour by hour, as it unfolds over the twenty-four hours of Good Friday.

'This breathtaking recreation of life in the ancient world welds the power of myth and magic to a stirring plot.' Ian Rankin