Naomi Mitchison (1897-1999)

Naomi May Margaret Haldane, daughter of John Scott Haldane and Louise Kathleen Trotter, was born in Edinburg, England on 1 Nov 1897. She died in Carradale in Kintyre, England on 11 Jan 1999. In 1916 she married the barrister Gilbert Richard Mitchison with whom she had 7 children: Geoffrey, Denis, Murdoch, Avrion, Louis, Valentine and Clemency.

In 1891 she was appointeed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) and was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, CBE since October 1964 (but apparently never used that style herself). She was a prolific writer, completing more than 90 books in her lifetime, across a multitude of styles and genres.

Later works included science fiction novels such as "Memoirs of a Spacewoman" (1962) and "Solution Three (1975).

Memoirs of a Spacewoman ...

The Spacewoman in question is a scientist and explorer. It's set many centuries in the future, though no dates are given. Humans have explored many worlds in a number of different galaxies. The quest is for knowledge and to be helpful: there is a strict rule against 'interference'.

The narrator, whose name is Mary, is a specialist in 'communication' - a kind of telepathy. She operates in a society where woman are just as likely as men to be leaders, though she herself prefers not to lead. They also do pretty much as they please as regards sex and reproduction:

"I think of my friends and the fathers of my children. I think about my children, but I think less about my four dear normals than I think about Viola. And I think about Ariel."

Viola is a haploid human, conceived as a result of sexual interaction with a Martian - Martians being hermaphrodite. Ariel is an alien creature that could be seen either as a parasite or a kind of child.

There are no space-opera thrills and fights: rather there are a number of different worlds with interesting biologies. In one case there is an ethical problem concerning some caterpillars and butterflies, both intelligent. Attitudes about sex and about alien cultures are similar to those of the New Wave, though it is not normally classed as part of it.