ONE OF THE HALDANES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23223, 22 June 1937, Page 15

ONE OF THE HALDANES

If I were asked to name the six most notable Scotswomen in London I would have difficulty in placing them in order (says an English exchange), but I would have no doubt about including Mrs Naomi Mitch ison among them. She belongs to the brilliant Haldane family, a sister of Professor J. B. S. Haldane, the scientist. Her home on the riyer front at Hammersmith is rarely without literary or political visitors. That is not surprising, for she holds a prominent place in both literature and politics. She is a novelist who has brought history to life. She has done more than any other writer to make the great days of Athens and Sparta live again for the youngsters of to-day. She is steeped in the atmosphere of her stories. She has a quiet voice, and in narrating some of the incidents of early times she makes the Grecian girls of Sappho’s time, who were always putting their garlands straight and being given flower-buds dipped in wine to drink, seem more real than people in the room where she entertains listeners. Although the writing of historical books is her principal occupation, she is, like her brother, a keen scientist. As a girl of 15, she used to shock visitors to her Edinburgh home by telling them about her guinea-pigs, which she kept, not for pets, but for experiments into the law of heredity. In addition to her scientific work and her writing, she finds time to look after four jolly children. When only 16, she became engaged to Mr G. R. Mitchison, then a student at New College Oxford. He was later liaison officer between the English and French forces in Italy, and is now a barrister. She was only 17 when she married and settled in London. Her husband is one of the legal props of the Labour Party. She is dark, and delights in provoking discussion. She is a woman tinctured with idealism. She hates war. She wants England to become a place worth living in.