page_title: Naomi Mitchison
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Naomi Mitchison / Biography / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Naomi Mitchison, Scottish writer. herm at South Gyle. Deutsch: Naomi Mitchison, Büste in South Gyle
context_page_description: Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison, CBE was a Scottish novelist and poet. Often called the doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote over 90 books, covering historical fiction, science fiction, travel writing and autobiography. Her husband Dick Mitchison's life peerage in 1964 entitled her to call herself Lady Mitchison, but she never did. She was appointed CBE in 1981. The Corn King and the Spring Queen is seen by some as the best 20th-century historical novel.
context_section_description: Dick predeceased her in 1970, but Naomi remained active as a writer well into her nineties. She was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1981. In her old age she was constantly anxious and depressed about the future, particularly the misuse of scientific development such as nuclear arms. She claimed that to experience two world wars in a lifetime was too much. On the other hand, she never exhausted the Haldanes' eccentricity, and once remarked that her biography in Who's Who was "burning rubbish".
  When asked on her 90th birthday whether she had any regrets in life, she replied, "Yes, all the men I never slept with. Imagine!"
  She died at Carradale on 11 January 1999 at the age of 101 and was cremated at the Clydebank crematorium on 16 January. Her ashes were then scattered at Carradale.
caption: Statue of Naomi Mitchison, located in South Gyle, Edinburgh
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