Haydn Wheeler's Blog - Posts Tagged "yvonne-mitchell"
Yvonne Mitchell. The Shakespeare Memorial 1953
The acting cast of the 1953 season at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre not only had a talented troupe of actors and actresses but would produce a talented group of writers. Written publications through the years that followed with Yvonne Mitchell, Robert Shaw, and Michael Redgrave are substantial. Donald Pleasance, also of that group of Shakespeare actors, wrote a children’s book. Between them, a body of written work which covers playwriting, screenplays, children’s books, novels, and biographies.
I first discovered Yvonne Mitchell’s novels and other written works via another actor, Robert Shaw. After reading Robert Shaw’s books, his five novels, a fascination then followed in researching Shaw’s background. Somebody I saw principally as an actor when I was young. 'The Royal Hunt of the Sun', the film being my introduction to Robert, the actor. This perception of Robert changed through reading first, Shaw’s 'The Flag', thereafter, his other four books wrote by him. I now saw Robert Shaw as a novelist, playwright, and actor.
While searching for a printed version of 'Cato Street', a play written by Robert, my research led me to an article about Shaw in the Daily Mirror newspaper. The focus of this article was on the cast of 1953, who performed Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. In the company, a young Robert Shaw, described as the most attractive male when looking at men this side of the Atlantic, compared with USA actors. The actress who made the comment, Yvonne Mitchell. Also in this company of actors was Michael Redgrave.
Knowing Yvonne Mitchell as with Shaw, from her acting career and now knowing Yvonne and Robert shared the stage together, my curiosity led me to look deeper into this connection. I made a discovery of quality and quantity in the written word by Yvonne. As I delved into Yvonne Mitchell’s books, beginning with her initial publication, 'Actress', my admiration for her work grew.
The novels have distinct styles, and diverse settings where the story takes place. Yvonne integrates her acting background into her storytelling with the characters, especially in 'A Year in Time' and 'The Bedsitter'. The theme of seeking a sense of identity, where one can find acceptance, is prominent in both novels.
Yvonne’s second novel, 'A Frame For Julian' centres around the protagonist’s powerful desire for recognition. What effect this has on those close to Julian, his family, friends, and Julian himself brings the story to a climactic conclusion.
Delving into the human condition is a prominent point explored in many of Yvonne’s novels. You come away after reading Yvonne’s books with a sense of a double meaning in some of her passages. A talent for humour and the seriousness combined is a quality quite extraordinary that Yvonne excels at. This is done with great skill in her novel, 'But Answer Came There None'. Description and questioning of interpretation of what witnessed by an 80-year-old lady as she lies in a geriatric ward is a powerful piece of writing.
The mixing of the factual and fictional with dates and names, something Yvonne uses in her books, is at its most obvious in The Family. This story, told through Esther, brings the reader early in the book to a place of loss experienced by Esther around the death of her mother, Madeline. A photograph of Madeline, which sits on a brown cupboard in the sitting-room, is a comfort to Esther, where she visits and speaks to her late mother.
Yvonne herself lost her mother when young. As did Robert Shaw with his father. Yvonne and Robert both delve into the emotional impact of a parent’s loss during childhood, artfully conveyed through a character in their narratives.
Did Yvonne and Robert, while both appearing in the Shakespeare Company productions of 1953, share their stories of loss?
Through the writing process in later life, both writers explore in their novels a loss in childhood, and then its influence in their later life. Robert concentrates on the adult, where his character is now as an adult in all his novels. Taking a retrospective view. Yvonne speaks to you through the child and as an older self in her books.
'The Family' brings into its storyline the family’s connections with business. This was also a reality in Yvonne’s life. Her father was involved in the J. Lyons & Co company. Tea drinking outlets and catering contracts, such as organising the ‘Venice in London’ fair at the Olympia, fiction here is mixed with fact. Yvonne’s father had organised functions in reality at Olympia.
The opening of the first tea shop in Piccadilly, another example in the book where Yvonne’s knowledge of family history works its way into her writing. Dates, times, and ages come from a place of true occurrences, to be mixed and juggled, reassigned, and put into the story, then onto members of the family.
Read by somebody who knows a little of Yvonne Mitchell’s background, 'The Family' brings a curiosity to certain passages. You can’t help but feel you are entering a guessing game put to you by Yvonne. To what extent do the descriptions align with reality? With the use of an artistic licence, she shares her observations and thoughts.
A certainty where a character is plainly based on somebody Yvonne has met, knows well, or knew is in the character Albert, Esther’s father, obviously represents in part Yvonne Mitchell’s father. The joining of Appleby’s the family business at 14 leaves no imagination needed in knowing this is a reference to Bertie Joseph, Yvonne’s father, joining Lyons & Co at fourteen.
In fact, this direct representation as a resource, referenced in Mark Garnett’s biography of the politician Keith Joseph. The Family in its notes has Yvonne’s novel as a source. Keith Joseph was Yvonne Mitchell’s cousin.
The story behind the story through her paragraphs is, as I’ve mentioned before, a wonderful technique of writing that Yvonne is brilliant at, as is also her questioning aspect. Ruth, from the Dance side of the family tree in her questioning of the family’s lack of visiting others outside of the family homes. This reason for such a limited scope, the same furnishing in their homes, put to the now socially upwardly mobile element of the family. Moving from the East End of London into dreamed-of West Hampstead then to Carriage Folk had brought about a conformity.
Yvonne Mitchell is exceptional in her ability to express what it is to be human in her storytelling. The ever-changing emotions, events, and experiences in being human, Yvonne Mitchell skillfully exhibits through her writing word. Complexities created through characters’ interactions with one another, a theme Yvonne writes upon with skill. Wit, sadness, joy, love and knocks we all encounter ourselves, expressed through her words.
Yvonne Mitchell, we know as an actress. As an author, biographer with Colette and playwright, Yvonne accomplished work in her writing is as engaging for the reader as her screen and theatre performances.
Thankfully, there is still a wealth of Yvonne’s books accessible through secondary sources. My initial exposure to her writing was through her biographical book, 'Actress'. This introduction, now looking back after reading her later novels, gives the reader some insight into her written characters. The actress at work, stepping into other shoes which then the audience views, connects with. Yvonne, as an author, masterfully brings that connection to the reader also through her novels.
Yvonne Mitchell
Yvonne Mitchell
I first discovered Yvonne Mitchell’s novels and other written works via another actor, Robert Shaw. After reading Robert Shaw’s books, his five novels, a fascination then followed in researching Shaw’s background. Somebody I saw principally as an actor when I was young. 'The Royal Hunt of the Sun', the film being my introduction to Robert, the actor. This perception of Robert changed through reading first, Shaw’s 'The Flag', thereafter, his other four books wrote by him. I now saw Robert Shaw as a novelist, playwright, and actor.
While searching for a printed version of 'Cato Street', a play written by Robert, my research led me to an article about Shaw in the Daily Mirror newspaper. The focus of this article was on the cast of 1953, who performed Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. In the company, a young Robert Shaw, described as the most attractive male when looking at men this side of the Atlantic, compared with USA actors. The actress who made the comment, Yvonne Mitchell. Also in this company of actors was Michael Redgrave.
Knowing Yvonne Mitchell as with Shaw, from her acting career and now knowing Yvonne and Robert shared the stage together, my curiosity led me to look deeper into this connection. I made a discovery of quality and quantity in the written word by Yvonne. As I delved into Yvonne Mitchell’s books, beginning with her initial publication, 'Actress', my admiration for her work grew.
The novels have distinct styles, and diverse settings where the story takes place. Yvonne integrates her acting background into her storytelling with the characters, especially in 'A Year in Time' and 'The Bedsitter'. The theme of seeking a sense of identity, where one can find acceptance, is prominent in both novels.
Yvonne’s second novel, 'A Frame For Julian' centres around the protagonist’s powerful desire for recognition. What effect this has on those close to Julian, his family, friends, and Julian himself brings the story to a climactic conclusion.
Delving into the human condition is a prominent point explored in many of Yvonne’s novels. You come away after reading Yvonne’s books with a sense of a double meaning in some of her passages. A talent for humour and the seriousness combined is a quality quite extraordinary that Yvonne excels at. This is done with great skill in her novel, 'But Answer Came There None'. Description and questioning of interpretation of what witnessed by an 80-year-old lady as she lies in a geriatric ward is a powerful piece of writing.
The mixing of the factual and fictional with dates and names, something Yvonne uses in her books, is at its most obvious in The Family. This story, told through Esther, brings the reader early in the book to a place of loss experienced by Esther around the death of her mother, Madeline. A photograph of Madeline, which sits on a brown cupboard in the sitting-room, is a comfort to Esther, where she visits and speaks to her late mother.
Yvonne herself lost her mother when young. As did Robert Shaw with his father. Yvonne and Robert both delve into the emotional impact of a parent’s loss during childhood, artfully conveyed through a character in their narratives.
Did Yvonne and Robert, while both appearing in the Shakespeare Company productions of 1953, share their stories of loss?
Through the writing process in later life, both writers explore in their novels a loss in childhood, and then its influence in their later life. Robert concentrates on the adult, where his character is now as an adult in all his novels. Taking a retrospective view. Yvonne speaks to you through the child and as an older self in her books.
'The Family' brings into its storyline the family’s connections with business. This was also a reality in Yvonne’s life. Her father was involved in the J. Lyons & Co company. Tea drinking outlets and catering contracts, such as organising the ‘Venice in London’ fair at the Olympia, fiction here is mixed with fact. Yvonne’s father had organised functions in reality at Olympia.
The opening of the first tea shop in Piccadilly, another example in the book where Yvonne’s knowledge of family history works its way into her writing. Dates, times, and ages come from a place of true occurrences, to be mixed and juggled, reassigned, and put into the story, then onto members of the family.
Read by somebody who knows a little of Yvonne Mitchell’s background, 'The Family' brings a curiosity to certain passages. You can’t help but feel you are entering a guessing game put to you by Yvonne. To what extent do the descriptions align with reality? With the use of an artistic licence, she shares her observations and thoughts.
A certainty where a character is plainly based on somebody Yvonne has met, knows well, or knew is in the character Albert, Esther’s father, obviously represents in part Yvonne Mitchell’s father. The joining of Appleby’s the family business at 14 leaves no imagination needed in knowing this is a reference to Bertie Joseph, Yvonne’s father, joining Lyons & Co at fourteen.
In fact, this direct representation as a resource, referenced in Mark Garnett’s biography of the politician Keith Joseph. The Family in its notes has Yvonne’s novel as a source. Keith Joseph was Yvonne Mitchell’s cousin.
The story behind the story through her paragraphs is, as I’ve mentioned before, a wonderful technique of writing that Yvonne is brilliant at, as is also her questioning aspect. Ruth, from the Dance side of the family tree in her questioning of the family’s lack of visiting others outside of the family homes. This reason for such a limited scope, the same furnishing in their homes, put to the now socially upwardly mobile element of the family. Moving from the East End of London into dreamed-of West Hampstead then to Carriage Folk had brought about a conformity.
Yvonne Mitchell is exceptional in her ability to express what it is to be human in her storytelling. The ever-changing emotions, events, and experiences in being human, Yvonne Mitchell skillfully exhibits through her writing word. Complexities created through characters’ interactions with one another, a theme Yvonne writes upon with skill. Wit, sadness, joy, love and knocks we all encounter ourselves, expressed through her words.
Yvonne Mitchell, we know as an actress. As an author, biographer with Colette and playwright, Yvonne accomplished work in her writing is as engaging for the reader as her screen and theatre performances.
Thankfully, there is still a wealth of Yvonne’s books accessible through secondary sources. My initial exposure to her writing was through her biographical book, 'Actress'. This introduction, now looking back after reading her later novels, gives the reader some insight into her written characters. The actress at work, stepping into other shoes which then the audience views, connects with. Yvonne, as an author, masterfully brings that connection to the reader also through her novels.
Yvonne Mitchell
Yvonne Mitchell
The Books of Yvonne Mitchell.
The acting cast of the 1953 season at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre not only had a talented troupe of actors and actresses but would produce a group of writers. Written publications through the years that followed from Yvonne Mitchell, Robert Shaw, and Micheal Redgrave are substantial. Donald Pleasance, also of that group of Shakespeare actors, wrote a children’s book. Between them, a body of written work which covers playwriting, screenplays, children’s books, novels, and biographies.
I discovered Yvonne Mitchell’s novels and other written works by chance. After revisiting Robert Shaw’s books, his five novels, this brought a fascination on my part in researching Shaw’s background. Somebody I saw principally as an actor when I was young. The film Royal Hunt of the Sun being my introduction to Robert, the actor. This perception of Robert changed through reading first, Shaw’s The Flag, thereafter, the other four books written by him. I saw Robert Shaw as a novelist, playwright, and actor.
In trying to locate a published copy of Cato Street, a stage play penned by Robert brought my research to an article on Shaw in the Daily Mirror newspaper. The focus of this article was on the cast of 1953 who performed at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. In the company, a young Robert Shaw, described as the most attractive male when looking at men this side of the Atlantic, compared with the USA actors. The actress who made the comment, Yvonne Mitchell. Also in this company of actors was Michael Redgrave.
Knowing Yvonne Mitchell as with Shaw, from her acting career and now knowing Yvonne and Robert shared the stage together, my curiosity led me to look deeper into this connection. I made a discovery of quality and quantity in the written word by Yvonne. As I delved into Yvonne Mitchell’s books, beginning with her initial publication, The Actress, my admiration for her work expanded.
The novels have distinct styles, and diverse settings where the story takes place. Yvonne integrates her acting background experience into her storytelling. This is at its most obvious in A Year in Time and The Family.
Yvonne Mitchell is exceptional in her ability to express what it is to be human in her storytelling. The ever changing through age, events and experiences on the human condition, Yvonne Mitchell skillfully brings to life through her writing word. Complexities created through characters’ interactions with one another, a theme Yvonne writes upon with skill. Wit, sadness, joy, love and knocks we all encounter ourselves, expressed through her words.
Yvonne Mitchell, we know predominantly as an actress. As an author, biographer of Colette and playwright, Yvonne accomplished work in her writing is as engaging for the reader as her screen and theatre performances.
Thankfully, there is still a wealth of Yvonne’s books accessible through secondary sources. My initial exposure to her writing was through her biographical book, The Actress. This introduction, now looking back after reading her later novels, gives the reader some insight into her written characters. The actress at work, stepping into other shoes which then the audience views, connects with. Yvonne, as an author, masterfully brings that also through her novels.
'Actress', a biography of Yvonne's beginnings in acting school and the theatre, also gives us an insight into her first credited film role in Thorold Dickinson’s directed ‘Queen of Spades.’ An interesting piece of information regarding Yvonne and her co-star in the film Edith Evans was told to me by Yvonne Mitchell’s daughter Cordelia Monsey. “Evans said to my mother on their first day working on the film, ‘both new girls together.’” Both Actresses in their first credited film roles. Yvonne had an earlier uncredited part playing a factory worker in the 1941 film ‘Love on the Dole.’
Yvonne Mitchell's personal experience and observations in the world of repertoire, theatre, film, and television are conversation-like in ‘Actress.’ Advice entwined with Yvonne's own stories of touring, bedsits, landladies and, as a stagehand, shifting the scenery, working on the lighting, you get an insider's view of the pre-war, war years and after of Yvonne's working life.
For a spell, Yvonne worked as a Red Cross nurse. From 6.30 in the morning till 6.30 in the evening. Working at Edgware Road tube station. This was all part of Mitchell's life while also pursuing her career in the theatre.
A truly lovely read. Beautifully written, where Yvonne Mitchell takes the lead in her own story with a one-to-one telling with the reader.
As a way into discovering and exploring Yvonne’s later novels, the reading of ‘Actress’ gives the reader a personal introduction to Yvonne herself. Most autobiographies typically conclude at the end of a career or profession, here we start at the early years of Yvonne’s acting. Written at the time as a guide for others in its style, she conveys in her book information to those with an interest in acting, what the world of stage and theatre entails for those entering the profession.
Reading ‘Actress’ now, after its publication in 1957, this is a fascinating book. Theatre, film, becoming a playwright. Yvonne tells her story as a young woman starting out in her chosen profession of acting.
This is the tale of a young man, Karl, a poet who, as a political refugee, left Germany as a boy and now experiences a sense of disconnection from his current home in Hampstead, even though it's his home by adoption.
Having recently witnessed the war in Europe and being forced to flee his homeland. Unexpectedly forced to leave his university education behind, Karl embarks on a journey with his brother across the Polish border.
Spending one night in Dover, both the brothers find themselves in Canada after being mistaken as suspected Nazis.
Finally arriving in England, Karl becomes enamored with Ellen, a promising actress who is steadily gaining recognition in the theatre community.
Yvonne incorporates her theatre expertise in the book, putting her knowledge of the stage and film into fictional settings.
Stephen and Bridget, a couple whose story runs alongside Karl's story, reflect the mirroring of Ellen and Karl, but with an acceptance of their relationship, although reluctantly
Looking at selfishness in all parties involved with underlying snobbery at play, and the power of one over another. Yvonne's novel delves into the emotion of infatuation and where finding one's identity through another has inherent downfalls.
Not receiving reciprocation from the recipient, Karl's affections become a basis for self-discovery with accompanying risks. Karl experiences indifference, although sympathy for Karl by Ellen is present and respect for his poetry. This brings a dilemma for the reader. You wish you could move on to the years where, after a time, an understanding and settling of emotions could bring these two to a better place with each other.
Yvonne's second novel, following ‘The Bed-sitter’, vividly portrays through strong characterization the story of two painters and their families in France, Julian and Gorby, both seeking recognition. Primarily shared through the perspective of the children and Julian's wife, Augusta.
The attitude of the two painters, Gorby's steady natured persona, contradict Julian's more tortured outlook. Yvonne skillfully projects the effect these two painters have on those around them, and the mannerisms and actions this creates in those family members.
The children themselves are a mix of the more upbeat and troubled. As Gorby becomes ever more accepted as a successful painter, Julian counters this with his struggles for acceptance by others in his art and by himself, for he is constantly at odds with his own work.
Yvonne's story of contrasts is in part haunting and very much a human story of reflection on those living with the consequences, highs, lows of another's ambition on loved ones. The darkness Julian spirals into challenges the relationship between Augusta and their children.
‘Bed-Sitter’, Yvonne's debut novel, portrays a tumultuous love story set in an unsettling and unresolved environment. With themes touched on in ‘The Bed-Sitter’. ‘Frame for Julian’ pushes the boundaries further, where we see a conflict in oneself as in Julian, mentally a destructive element surfaces. As you witness Julian grow ever distant to his family, Yvonne takes you to a jaw-dropping ending.
'A Year In Time', is Yvonne Mitchell's third novel. Rachel, a young girl, experiences the loss of her mother and rejection from her stepmother. Losing her father also, Rachel feels abandoned.
Yvonne herself, the author, lost her mother when young. You have a sense Yvonne draws on this awareness of loss and seamlessly adds it into her storytelling through her choice of words with an artistic licence.
The novel revolves around the world of actors. Through her storytelling, Yvonne, who is an actress herself, early on, presents a blend of characters who engage with each other as if they are performing what they genuinely believe to be in Rachel's best interests.
Rachel finds herself in the care of her uncle Oliver and partner Richard after attending a boarding school for a period. Also, an actor, Oliver, encourages Rachel in piano lessons, where she finds a sense of solace. Rachel forms a friendship with her piano teacher, Madame Ortini, that leads to a scheduled performance. As the concert date approaches, Rachel reflects on her motivations and the legacy of her performance.
"Though the date was the point at which she and Madame Ortini were aiming, it had seemed to keep its distance as if it would always be there on the calendar as an incentive. Two days before the date it dawned on Rachel with shock that it would not always be a future one. Very soon it would be mixed with billions of others in the past. She would have to catch at it with both hands, as a bouncing ball; and it might slip and dribble past her, irretrievable."
Rachel's piano playing opens a door into the world of theatre, an opportunity to appear in a play opening in New York, titled The Transfer. With a decision made, a trip by sea to America booked, Rachel boards the ship from Southampton.
The US was also a destination Yvonne herself took by ship, as she had a fear of flying.
Rachel plays a fifteen-year girl called Moffet who is born deaf, and whose father neglects to teach her speech. She is from childhood taught how to play the piano.
A strict director stamping his authority adds a sense of limited perimeters for the actors to expand their input through rehearsals and performance. Difficulties, which included a cut in pay, leaving Rachel unable to pay her hotel bills and being caught between in-house politics, has Rachel questioning her own motivations regarding her input into the production.
A lunchtime conversation between the cast touches on the topic of national isolation, Rachel feeling like a foreigner occasionally than at home. This brief discussion touches on the differences in social hierarchies between America and England. Rachel still hadn't inquired about the meaning of her union card.
Yvonne's character Rachel, through her many experiences and the people she shares those experiences with within the play, becomes an everywhere more realisation where her passion really lives.
Madame Ortini's advice to Rachel before she leaves for America serves as the framework for Yvonne's novel, with the story painted on the canvas.
"Don't be ashamed," she said, "of doing what you want to do, in case someone don't like you. It's time to be ashamed when you do something you DON'T want to do."
An interview with Yvonne Mitchell from 1960 makes for interesting reading. Her return to the UK after leaving a play in the USA titled The Wall.
"And the bullying? Well, for example, we had three dress rehearsals in Philadelphia. We were told the director was incommunicado, and we weren't supposed to see him. Here I was in a strange theatre trying to find my way around in the dark behind the scenes and not supposed to ask any questions. Finally, I said: Look there's danger here-there were no lights on behind the scenes and I was afraid someone might get hurt." Yvonne speaks on the shutting down of anybody that opened their mouth to ask a question, and was told, who do you think you are?"
The mixing of the factual and fictional with dates and names, something Yvonne uses in her books, is at its most obvious in 'The Family.' This story, told through Esther, brings the reader early in the book to a place of loss experienced by Esther around the death of her mother, Madeline. A photograph of Madeline, which sits on a brown cupboard in the sitting-room, is a comfort to Esther, where she visits and speaks to her late mother.
Yvonne herself lost her mother when young. As did Robert Shaw with his father. Yvonne and Robert both delve into the emotional impact of a parent’s loss during childhood, artfully conveyed through a character in their narratives.
Did Yvonne and Robert, while both appearing in the Shakespeare Company productions of 1953, share their stories of loss?
Through the writing process in later life, both writers explore in their novels a loss in childhood, and then its influence in their later life. Robert concentrates on the adult, where his character is now as an adult in all his novels. Taking a retrospective view. Yvonne speaks to you through the child and as an older self in her books.
'The Family' brings into its storyline the family’s connections with business. This was also a reality in Yvonne’s life. Her father was involved in the J. Lyons & Co company. Tea drinking outlets and catering contracts, such as organising the ‘Venice in London’ fair at the Olympia, fiction here is mixed with fact. Yvonne’s father had organised functions in reality at the Olympia.
The opening of the first tea shop in Piccadilly, another example in the book where Yvonne’s knowledge of family history works its way into her writing. Dates, times, and ages come from a place of true occurrences, to be mixed and juggled, reassigned and put into the story, then onto members of the family.
Read by somebody who knows a little of Yvonne Mitchell’s background, The Family brings a curiosity to certain passages. You can’t help but feel you are entering a guessing game put to you by Yvonne. To what extent do the descriptions align with reality? With the use of an artistic licence, she shares her observations and thoughts.
A certainty where a character is plainly based on somebody Yvonne has met, knows well or knew is in the character named Albert, Esther’s father, obviously represents in part Yvonne Mitchell’s father. The joining of Appleby’s the family business at 14 leaves no imagination needed in knowing this is a reference to Bertie Joseph, Yvonne’s father, joining Lyons & Co at fourteen.
In fact, this direct representation as a resource, referenced in Mark Garrnet’s biography of the politician Keith Joseph. The Family in its notes has Yvonne’s novel as a source. Keith Joseph was Yvonne Mitchell’s cousin.
The story behind the story through her paragraphs is, as I’ve mentioned before, a wonderful technique of writing that Yvonne is brilliant at, as is also her questioning aspect. Ruth, from the Dance side of the family tree in her questioning of the family’s lack of visiting others outside of the family homes. This reason for such a limited scope, the same furnishings in their homes put into the context of the now socially mobile element of the family. Moving from the East End of London into dreamed-of West Hampstead then to Carriage Folk had brought about a conformity.
The three sisters, Esther, Barbara, and Helen, all go through their own personal challenges as they grow older. They experience marriage, loss, and mental illness as they grow older. As their father’s illness advances, we see with war (WW2) always in the background the daughter’s duties a complexity of family pressures. Albert, their father’s second wife Betty and her instruction to the sisters concerning their father, adds to the family’s internal friction between the main characters. The Family is Yvonne Mitchell’s story of the unexcepted occuring in certain circles of family members. Within the family, members establish a hierarchical order based on factors such as popularity, cousinship, and second marriage. In her book, Yvonne Mitchell highlights the question of loyalty to others, where personal ambitions come into conflict with family duty and the emotional circumstances of one’s plans in life pursuits. The family members gathered for a meeting in discussion to ask whether Esther is to be allowed to pursue her acting career reflects a hierarchal theme set in Yvonne’s The Family. Yvonne Mitchell is again exceptional in her ability to give you a human story which focuses on the human condition. Complexities created through characters’ interactions with one another, a theme Yvonne writes upon with skill. Wit, sadness, joy, love and knocks we all encounter ourselves, expressed among her words.
The pages of 'Martha On Sunday' by Yvonne Mitchell are brimming with rapid thoughts, enacted scenes, and many characters. Through the consciousness of the actor (or not), we encounter a multitude of scenarios from the stage, domestic life, friends, and cast members on a Sunday. What is from the world of theatre and what is of Martha herself as a woman, is constantly in question. Yvonne puts identity on trial. Who is Martha really? This constant conversation with herself is thoughts aloud to the reader. Martha, in her acting profession, plays many parts where witty interludes quickly visit and depart.
A thought in reply to Miss Treeble, a teacher from Martha's early years while attending Perkins the dog nose injury.
"And anyway, Miss Treeble the great thing to remember is not to cry over milk which hasn't yet been spilt. The planet spins, and somewhere each night through Hamlet dies, Hamlet lives again. Death doesn't come easily to immortals."
'Martha on Sunday' is a departure from Yvonne's earlier writings. We are here in a continuing flow of thought at a pace. Its style initially threw me off, but you quickly get where Yvonne is putting you as the reader. In the stalls, seated, while the performance plays and thereafter.
'God is Inexperienced', Yvonne Mitchell’s 6th novel has the unusual quality of a novel within a novel. Chris is an aspiring writer, living at home. Disillusioned with his routes into employment and the mediocrity of his day-to-day living. Questions and answers arise in him after a trip to an exhibition at the Hayward, looking upon the paintings of Joan Miro.
Chris looks upon Joan’s paintings, and this stirs emotions within him. His prior visits to the Hayward to see Pop Art, in his thoughts, he could do better, came to the forefront of his thinking. Thinking of his father, he realises he was like his father. For things he, Chris, had liked, it said, could have done better. Did Joan experience the same?
Yvonne Mitchell, herself a painter, in these opening chapters, takes you with her characters on a night out with Chris and a young woman he had met at the exhibition.
A concert with a performance by Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline Dupré at the Festival Hall in the Barbican shared with Claire removes a layer of inhibition that he felt upon himself. The incredible performance leaves him feeling overwhelmed, with no self-awareness in that moment. For the first time in years, things he once looked on in envy had ceased to be.
Chris’s novel developing in his thoughts. Planned scenarios, he forms the ideas and settings where these characters will play out their scenes.
Yvonne then places you at a new beginning, Chris’s novel. As if it were a second act, followed by a third.
In the writer’s hands, the reader partakes in Chris’s formulation. The people inside this fictional story now coming alive and gaining purpose as it is being written. These characters take on a different shape as Chris creates a father figure called Ed, who manipulates his own desires and plans within the story regarding a gifted piano player in his son. This boy is central to Ed's dealings and plans around his son's performances.
The publishing industry and world of agents make an appearance as if by cameo regarding Chris among the pages. An insider’s take with a dose of dry wit and imagination in telling through Chris?
Yvonne Mitchell, as a writer, has brought another new dynamic to her storytelling. Having read several of her previous books. Here again, a unique way to approach a novel and bring something unexpected to the reader skillfully executed.
'But Answer Came There None', a book title taken from a line from Lewis Caroll's Walrus and the Carpenter and the last novel to be written by Yvonne Mitchell. Contains among its pages some of the strongest descriptive paragraphs I've read in her written works. Through evocative storytelling, this book's themes of death, heaven, and hell set in a geriatric ward are powerfully haunting.
I often come away from reading Yvonne's novels with a sense there is a twin meaning, the humorous and serious in her passages. One of Yvonne's exceptional skills in her writing is this doubling up of meaning.
This novel has a different feel than her previous books. You have a sense of unease as the reader in approaching some passages. A description of a vacuum cleaner, for example, gives you the chills. It may seem like a mundane, uninteresting device. Its purpose is to clean, and that's exactly what it does. Yvonne here is spectacular in her description, bringing the machine's torturous one-note sound as it vacuums early mornings on the ward, into a vivid, haunting machine, "motes into the voracious belly bag of the central life-swallower." This is one of many reflective written passages where the picking up of the normal becomes distorted into the eerily disturbing.
It is also a book of questions about the unknown put, then challenged in reply. The desire to read more of the authors' work once you start is addictive. There is happily a broad selection of Yvonne Mitchell's novels available still, through secondhand source suppliers. I keep a copy of her Fables on the coffee table, which is a terrific way to read a little of Yvonne's writings when wanting a quick read of her work.
This gem of a book is becoming ever scarcer to find. Published by the Mid Northumberland Art Group with illustrations by Bert Hollander a French artist, the limited-edition numbered Yvonne Mitchell signed copies titled 'Fables', are based in the tradition of Aesop.
The inside flyleaf introduction describes this book as fables for adults but without morals, which is how I read these tales of symbolism with something of the dysfunctional in the characters portrayed.
Yvonne Mitchell injects a humorous, you know what's coming element in some characters' predicaments. Making you smile at the conclusion of, for example, The Kind King.
'Fables' published just two years before Yvonne's death in 1979 is another avenue in direction, adding to Mitchell's diverse scope and skill as a writer. You could easily see a second series of Fables by Yvonne in her later years. We know Yvonne Mitchell had been working on a biography of the Redgrave family, which has yet been unpublished.
If 'Fables' is to be one of Yvonne Mitchell's last published works, it is a testament to Yvonne's diverse grasp on her ability to bring the reader in via another literary style of writing. We have a vast collection of Mitchell's words to explore, ranging from novels to biographies and children's books.
Fables, a book that is best kept in view as you go about your daily duties.
A quick fix of Yvonne's Fables' writings has that return dip back into pull ingredient in spades.
Colette: A Taste for Life
The early 1970s not only saw Yvonne Mitchell with her biography of Colette, 'A Taste For Life,' published but also her own one woman shows touring the country, Colette. Colette’s Cheri, a five-part serialisation drama on BBC2, where Yvonne Mitchell plays Colette’s heroine Lea in the book adaptation, appeared on our television screens. A Radio Times written feature from April 1973 tells of Yvonne Mitchell visiting locations in France with Russell Miller. Maurice Goudeket Colette’s third husband and Colette de Jouvenel Colette’s only child both speak to Yvonne and give insights into the life of Colette.
Yvonne was asked to write a biography of 'Colette' after her performance as Lea in Claude Whatman's directed BBC2 serial series, Cheri. Interviewed in 1979, Yvonne Mitchell spoke of visits to France researching her subject.
"I sort of snooped around St Sauveur,' she recalls. It was easy to get the feel of her-she was a woman of the earth, immersed in the most basic things from the earth: plants, insects, birds, anything that lived. This absorption began in childhood; she had a basically very happy childhood with a really wonderful mother, Sido. Her mother would stop her skipping to say, "Look at that little bird in the tree." She was taught to observe the tiniest things. She used to get up early and walk about two miles to be the first to uncover the first primrose of the day and to see the snail waking up."
From Colette’s upbringing, her close relationship with her mother Sido and father Jules-Joseph Colette. A later marriage to Willy, Yvonne, goes into detail of the hours Colette spent locked in a room by Willy, having to write as one of Willy’s ghost writers. The novelist, actress, journalism, and through the world wars. The chapters of Colette’s biography follow a course of significant figures that influenced Colette in her writing.
Yvonne Mitchell’s 'A Taste For Life' wonderfully combines the depth of a well-researched book with a storytelling writing style. You not only come away from reading with a feeling of an insight into Colette as the person, but Yvonne’s own understanding of her subject. Brought to life through her own beautifully written passages, adds a flow, a rhythm to each paragraph. Added extracts from Colette’s novels, works alongside Yvonne’s words.
Yvonne, the novelist, provides us with more than just an account, a storyteller’s skill, with a reading audience in mind. With many illustrations and photographs throughout the book, this biography of Colette is a fitting companion to Colette’s many books. For those that saw Yvonne play Colette on stage, I can only imagine.
In Yvonne’s biography of Colette, we get a flavour of what was a performance. Both Colette and Yvonne knew the theatre, and the written word intimately.
An intriguing insight into Yvonne's writing process when writing this biography of Colette, is spoken of again in an interview with Yvonne in 1979. "I could not write unless I was in bed with the curtains drawn and the light on and with a scarf around my neck. Colette, too used to have the curtains drawn and a scarf round her neck when she was writing, which was strange for a woman so attached to air and earth. I suppose being an actress, it was like playing a part in the theatre-the part had taken me over."
Yvonne Mitchell
The same sky: A play in three acts
Yvonne Mitchell's strong work ethic involved not only authoring novels but also crafting a play. During joblessness and the belief that she may never work again, she opted to live with her sister. Yvonne, having no clue how to start, adopted a template that someone had previously created.
Building on the themes of Romeo and Juliet, an original setting, a set of characters were explored. The Same Sky tells the tale of a conflict between a Jewish family and their daughter's romance with a non-Jewish person. This is a story about a young couple from two different families, whose love for each other is tested by the tensions arising from their contrasting religious backgrounds.
Opposed to the couple's marriage and marrying outside the faith. Their families putting barriers between the lovers. This story reflected what Yvonne had heard from her sister while working at a children's play centre. She witnessed an animosity in some young children between the faiths.
Set at the outbreak of WWII. The play directly confronted the prejudices of various beliefs. Yvonne knew it would be hard to get produced, to be picked up, but was determined not to allow her work to be constrained by commercial considerations.
In her own words, knowing work was scarce, she wrote as a need for something to do. Was this her downplaying her reasons for writing? As something to do.? Or a direct commentary. Her own witnessing of a prejudice, and a reflection of where that can lead to, in a family setting, or for the generality.
With a three-year cap from being written and to the stage. Yvonne would finally see her play on the stage. 1950 saw the Nottingham Playhouse put on a performance. What followed was more theatre productions and radio broadcasts.
Cathy Away
First, finding a copy of ‘Cathy Away’ is difficult. After reading Yvonne Mitchell’s novels, I was keen to read her books written for children. Finding a copy for sale via a well-known bidding site, a bid placed, a winning bid and a copy in my possession. Yvonne also published another Cathy book called "Cathy at Home." This book is extremely rare. Luckily, I could source a picture of this second book directly via Cordelia Monsey, Yvonne’s daughter. Who kindly sent me pictures while she was in France. Cathy’s destination, as would have it in the book.
When reading 'Cathy Away', you immediately become immersed in Cathy's thoughts. From her initial apprehension of spending her first time away from home and staying with her cousins, the Swann's in France. Yvonne employs a technique in her novels, both for adults and children, where the main protagonist describes the characters, introducing them to the reader.
Identifying with Cathy and her worries early in the book, in questioning her sleeping arrangements if she accepted her aunties invitation. We relate to our own experiences when growing up. Fears of the unknown and being unsure are all part of our childhood. Cathy’s security comes via her teddy. This security represented by teddy develops later in the book, where a selfless act occurs.
Cathy’s descriptions of her mother and father when asking them for advice on accepting this trip abroad are analytical and bring a child's honesty to her decision making.
Although this is not always the case and self questioning is a part of Cathy’s thinking. Questioning and being critical of herself, Cathy places questions on herself in her behaviour.
When describing Mr Swann’s paintings, Cathy goes from seeing his work as a meaningless mess but later sees there was meaning in what he did. Explained, as she was “not understanding enough to see it.” Not being clever enough. This is Cathy's reasoning.
Yvonne masterfully separates herself from the adult and immerses into the child's perspective of witnessing those who share her life's happenings on holiday. Bringing, as in Cathy’s age of 11, a curiosity associated with being young. This is all wonderfully told to the reader in a diary-like format of each day merging into the next.
When in France, Cathy’s adventures with her relatives are plentiful. Just like our own recollections of extended holidays, Cathy becomes completely immersed with her cousin's activities in the out-of-school August break. Exploring the cellar below the house, a trip to the circus where a monkey gets loose and later an accident on a bike. These are all encompassed with Cathy’s thoughts and her judgement applied to her cousin's activities.
Now on reading this book and knowing about Yvonne’s novels. The bike accident incident near the end of the book had me thinking a jaw dropping unseen moment was coming.
I loved this book. It reminds you of a time in your own life where play, adventure, and shared experiences with friends and cousins, in Cathy's case, combined with the long summer break, were adventurous.
Yvonne Mitchell’s adult novels, the biography of Colette and play writing. Her ability to write and master that writing in its many forms. Her children's book ‘Cathy Away’ is a part of.
Cathy At Home
‘Cathy At Home,’ a book I took as a book too far. Never able to source a reference to, let alone own and complete my collection of Yvonne Mitchell’s books. In being able to read. Not to be so. As referenced in ‘Cathy Away,’ I had luckily required a picture of the cover via Cordelia, Cathy’s story told from home I had accepted as a loss cause. This changed.
A story in itself, much like Cathy’s daily experiences with the Swann family. I came to read this book as of a time before, in a Dickens like serialization. Via instalments, Cordelia generously sent me chapters of the book as photographs. Over several weeks pages would arrive via my email, where the anticipation of another arrival brought a sense of excitement to my weekly in-box.
This episode's delivery of Yvonne’s book created for me an attachment to this book different from her others, where the characters' adventures told within became comforting, a time to immerse in and enjoy. Sat by the window looking onto Wentworth Avenue, as the daylight faded outside, set a temperature like feel around the book. Set in the winter months reflected what I was witnessing outside as November drew ever more near. Although it was autumn, the air carried a chill.
Cathy is now at home in London, four months on from time spent holidaying in France with the Swann family through summer in ‘Cathy Away’. With a reversal of location and set in the winter months, we now see the Swann family, Jimmy, Louise, Lenora and their actress mother Joey visiting Cathy. Cathy’s mother and their lodger, Godfrey, a saxophone player. D, Cathy’s father, has to go to fly to New York on business. This is also the case with the Swann’s, where their father is not with them, staying in France preparing for an art exhibition.
Each character of the Swann’s from ‘Cathy Away,’ Cathy gives us a list of descriptions of those belonging to each family, hers and the Swann’s. Creating lists is something that occurs in both books. A list of who wants what and what gifts purchased around the Christmas period by Cathy show again the orderly applied, a list made. As in our own lives, the ordinary turns into the unorderly all by itself. List or no list. Cathy’s father D, for example, in his sudden rush for his plane, Cathy rationalises her disappointment in watching her father leave.
“Life is often like this I find. Something new happens, like the Swanns coming to stay with us - you prepare yourself for it, it begins and then suddenly something you weren’t expecting occurs and you have to adjust yourself again.”
A thread of the ordinary we witness in Cathy’s life turning to the unexpected is a theme through ‘Cathy Away’ and ‘Cathy at Home.’
Jimmy’s attachment to a wart - hog and concerns about a kinkajou at London Zoo, leading to an all out search for a missing person, a trip to see Joey acting on a film set where a walk on part for the children by the director suggested, are all of examples of the ordinary turning into anything but.
Cathy’s initial worries on the Swann’s finding their visit to London and staying at her home dull compared to their home in the sun with olive trees and the sea nearby soon evaporate as events take over.
Yvonne, in her description of characters when applied to the situations they find themselves, exposes each of their personalities. When the unplanned for happens, those that had caused the occurrence, those that react and bring a worry upon others, Cathy is our commentator. I found myself in both camps, cause, effect and acting on. You side with Jimmy, in his need to end the suffering he was witnessing, but also the need for boundaries placed on Jimmy, Louise and Lenora in their adventures. Each of the children, in how they think and react, impulse, cautious, caring emotions are all at work within the group.
The Cathy books by Yvonne Mitchell appeal to the young and the adult alike. Each in transporting you into the events and experiences had by Cathy, but also entices to the surface, alongside Cathy’s present, your own recollections of a past younger self. Of old, at school, where in description Cathy’s cousins could very well be any grouping of children exploring in one another's company. Each of us becomes shaped by those we kept company with. Cathy invites us to share her time spent with her cousins, the Swann’s.
While talking to Cordelia about her mother's Cathy books, she brought up a crossover, which is common in Yvonne's stories that mix fact with fiction. Visiting the zoo and going to the film studios were both experiences she had when young.
I discovered Yvonne Mitchell’s novels and other written works by chance. After revisiting Robert Shaw’s books, his five novels, this brought a fascination on my part in researching Shaw’s background. Somebody I saw principally as an actor when I was young. The film Royal Hunt of the Sun being my introduction to Robert, the actor. This perception of Robert changed through reading first, Shaw’s The Flag, thereafter, the other four books written by him. I saw Robert Shaw as a novelist, playwright, and actor.
In trying to locate a published copy of Cato Street, a stage play penned by Robert brought my research to an article on Shaw in the Daily Mirror newspaper. The focus of this article was on the cast of 1953 who performed at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. In the company, a young Robert Shaw, described as the most attractive male when looking at men this side of the Atlantic, compared with the USA actors. The actress who made the comment, Yvonne Mitchell. Also in this company of actors was Michael Redgrave.
Knowing Yvonne Mitchell as with Shaw, from her acting career and now knowing Yvonne and Robert shared the stage together, my curiosity led me to look deeper into this connection. I made a discovery of quality and quantity in the written word by Yvonne. As I delved into Yvonne Mitchell’s books, beginning with her initial publication, The Actress, my admiration for her work expanded.
The novels have distinct styles, and diverse settings where the story takes place. Yvonne integrates her acting background experience into her storytelling. This is at its most obvious in A Year in Time and The Family.
Yvonne Mitchell is exceptional in her ability to express what it is to be human in her storytelling. The ever changing through age, events and experiences on the human condition, Yvonne Mitchell skillfully brings to life through her writing word. Complexities created through characters’ interactions with one another, a theme Yvonne writes upon with skill. Wit, sadness, joy, love and knocks we all encounter ourselves, expressed through her words.
Yvonne Mitchell, we know predominantly as an actress. As an author, biographer of Colette and playwright, Yvonne accomplished work in her writing is as engaging for the reader as her screen and theatre performances.
Thankfully, there is still a wealth of Yvonne’s books accessible through secondary sources. My initial exposure to her writing was through her biographical book, The Actress. This introduction, now looking back after reading her later novels, gives the reader some insight into her written characters. The actress at work, stepping into other shoes which then the audience views, connects with. Yvonne, as an author, masterfully brings that also through her novels.
'Actress', a biography of Yvonne's beginnings in acting school and the theatre, also gives us an insight into her first credited film role in Thorold Dickinson’s directed ‘Queen of Spades.’ An interesting piece of information regarding Yvonne and her co-star in the film Edith Evans was told to me by Yvonne Mitchell’s daughter Cordelia Monsey. “Evans said to my mother on their first day working on the film, ‘both new girls together.’” Both Actresses in their first credited film roles. Yvonne had an earlier uncredited part playing a factory worker in the 1941 film ‘Love on the Dole.’
Yvonne Mitchell's personal experience and observations in the world of repertoire, theatre, film, and television are conversation-like in ‘Actress.’ Advice entwined with Yvonne's own stories of touring, bedsits, landladies and, as a stagehand, shifting the scenery, working on the lighting, you get an insider's view of the pre-war, war years and after of Yvonne's working life.
For a spell, Yvonne worked as a Red Cross nurse. From 6.30 in the morning till 6.30 in the evening. Working at Edgware Road tube station. This was all part of Mitchell's life while also pursuing her career in the theatre.
A truly lovely read. Beautifully written, where Yvonne Mitchell takes the lead in her own story with a one-to-one telling with the reader.
As a way into discovering and exploring Yvonne’s later novels, the reading of ‘Actress’ gives the reader a personal introduction to Yvonne herself. Most autobiographies typically conclude at the end of a career or profession, here we start at the early years of Yvonne’s acting. Written at the time as a guide for others in its style, she conveys in her book information to those with an interest in acting, what the world of stage and theatre entails for those entering the profession.
Reading ‘Actress’ now, after its publication in 1957, this is a fascinating book. Theatre, film, becoming a playwright. Yvonne tells her story as a young woman starting out in her chosen profession of acting.
This is the tale of a young man, Karl, a poet who, as a political refugee, left Germany as a boy and now experiences a sense of disconnection from his current home in Hampstead, even though it's his home by adoption.
Having recently witnessed the war in Europe and being forced to flee his homeland. Unexpectedly forced to leave his university education behind, Karl embarks on a journey with his brother across the Polish border.
Spending one night in Dover, both the brothers find themselves in Canada after being mistaken as suspected Nazis.
Finally arriving in England, Karl becomes enamored with Ellen, a promising actress who is steadily gaining recognition in the theatre community.
Yvonne incorporates her theatre expertise in the book, putting her knowledge of the stage and film into fictional settings.
Stephen and Bridget, a couple whose story runs alongside Karl's story, reflect the mirroring of Ellen and Karl, but with an acceptance of their relationship, although reluctantly
Looking at selfishness in all parties involved with underlying snobbery at play, and the power of one over another. Yvonne's novel delves into the emotion of infatuation and where finding one's identity through another has inherent downfalls.
Not receiving reciprocation from the recipient, Karl's affections become a basis for self-discovery with accompanying risks. Karl experiences indifference, although sympathy for Karl by Ellen is present and respect for his poetry. This brings a dilemma for the reader. You wish you could move on to the years where, after a time, an understanding and settling of emotions could bring these two to a better place with each other.
Yvonne's second novel, following ‘The Bed-sitter’, vividly portrays through strong characterization the story of two painters and their families in France, Julian and Gorby, both seeking recognition. Primarily shared through the perspective of the children and Julian's wife, Augusta.
The attitude of the two painters, Gorby's steady natured persona, contradict Julian's more tortured outlook. Yvonne skillfully projects the effect these two painters have on those around them, and the mannerisms and actions this creates in those family members.
The children themselves are a mix of the more upbeat and troubled. As Gorby becomes ever more accepted as a successful painter, Julian counters this with his struggles for acceptance by others in his art and by himself, for he is constantly at odds with his own work.
Yvonne's story of contrasts is in part haunting and very much a human story of reflection on those living with the consequences, highs, lows of another's ambition on loved ones. The darkness Julian spirals into challenges the relationship between Augusta and their children.
‘Bed-Sitter’, Yvonne's debut novel, portrays a tumultuous love story set in an unsettling and unresolved environment. With themes touched on in ‘The Bed-Sitter’. ‘Frame for Julian’ pushes the boundaries further, where we see a conflict in oneself as in Julian, mentally a destructive element surfaces. As you witness Julian grow ever distant to his family, Yvonne takes you to a jaw-dropping ending.
'A Year In Time', is Yvonne Mitchell's third novel. Rachel, a young girl, experiences the loss of her mother and rejection from her stepmother. Losing her father also, Rachel feels abandoned.
Yvonne herself, the author, lost her mother when young. You have a sense Yvonne draws on this awareness of loss and seamlessly adds it into her storytelling through her choice of words with an artistic licence.
The novel revolves around the world of actors. Through her storytelling, Yvonne, who is an actress herself, early on, presents a blend of characters who engage with each other as if they are performing what they genuinely believe to be in Rachel's best interests.
Rachel finds herself in the care of her uncle Oliver and partner Richard after attending a boarding school for a period. Also, an actor, Oliver, encourages Rachel in piano lessons, where she finds a sense of solace. Rachel forms a friendship with her piano teacher, Madame Ortini, that leads to a scheduled performance. As the concert date approaches, Rachel reflects on her motivations and the legacy of her performance.
"Though the date was the point at which she and Madame Ortini were aiming, it had seemed to keep its distance as if it would always be there on the calendar as an incentive. Two days before the date it dawned on Rachel with shock that it would not always be a future one. Very soon it would be mixed with billions of others in the past. She would have to catch at it with both hands, as a bouncing ball; and it might slip and dribble past her, irretrievable."
Rachel's piano playing opens a door into the world of theatre, an opportunity to appear in a play opening in New York, titled The Transfer. With a decision made, a trip by sea to America booked, Rachel boards the ship from Southampton.
The US was also a destination Yvonne herself took by ship, as she had a fear of flying.
Rachel plays a fifteen-year girl called Moffet who is born deaf, and whose father neglects to teach her speech. She is from childhood taught how to play the piano.
A strict director stamping his authority adds a sense of limited perimeters for the actors to expand their input through rehearsals and performance. Difficulties, which included a cut in pay, leaving Rachel unable to pay her hotel bills and being caught between in-house politics, has Rachel questioning her own motivations regarding her input into the production.
A lunchtime conversation between the cast touches on the topic of national isolation, Rachel feeling like a foreigner occasionally than at home. This brief discussion touches on the differences in social hierarchies between America and England. Rachel still hadn't inquired about the meaning of her union card.
Yvonne's character Rachel, through her many experiences and the people she shares those experiences with within the play, becomes an everywhere more realisation where her passion really lives.
Madame Ortini's advice to Rachel before she leaves for America serves as the framework for Yvonne's novel, with the story painted on the canvas.
"Don't be ashamed," she said, "of doing what you want to do, in case someone don't like you. It's time to be ashamed when you do something you DON'T want to do."
An interview with Yvonne Mitchell from 1960 makes for interesting reading. Her return to the UK after leaving a play in the USA titled The Wall.
"And the bullying? Well, for example, we had three dress rehearsals in Philadelphia. We were told the director was incommunicado, and we weren't supposed to see him. Here I was in a strange theatre trying to find my way around in the dark behind the scenes and not supposed to ask any questions. Finally, I said: Look there's danger here-there were no lights on behind the scenes and I was afraid someone might get hurt." Yvonne speaks on the shutting down of anybody that opened their mouth to ask a question, and was told, who do you think you are?"
The mixing of the factual and fictional with dates and names, something Yvonne uses in her books, is at its most obvious in 'The Family.' This story, told through Esther, brings the reader early in the book to a place of loss experienced by Esther around the death of her mother, Madeline. A photograph of Madeline, which sits on a brown cupboard in the sitting-room, is a comfort to Esther, where she visits and speaks to her late mother.
Yvonne herself lost her mother when young. As did Robert Shaw with his father. Yvonne and Robert both delve into the emotional impact of a parent’s loss during childhood, artfully conveyed through a character in their narratives.
Did Yvonne and Robert, while both appearing in the Shakespeare Company productions of 1953, share their stories of loss?
Through the writing process in later life, both writers explore in their novels a loss in childhood, and then its influence in their later life. Robert concentrates on the adult, where his character is now as an adult in all his novels. Taking a retrospective view. Yvonne speaks to you through the child and as an older self in her books.
'The Family' brings into its storyline the family’s connections with business. This was also a reality in Yvonne’s life. Her father was involved in the J. Lyons & Co company. Tea drinking outlets and catering contracts, such as organising the ‘Venice in London’ fair at the Olympia, fiction here is mixed with fact. Yvonne’s father had organised functions in reality at the Olympia.
The opening of the first tea shop in Piccadilly, another example in the book where Yvonne’s knowledge of family history works its way into her writing. Dates, times, and ages come from a place of true occurrences, to be mixed and juggled, reassigned and put into the story, then onto members of the family.
Read by somebody who knows a little of Yvonne Mitchell’s background, The Family brings a curiosity to certain passages. You can’t help but feel you are entering a guessing game put to you by Yvonne. To what extent do the descriptions align with reality? With the use of an artistic licence, she shares her observations and thoughts.
A certainty where a character is plainly based on somebody Yvonne has met, knows well or knew is in the character named Albert, Esther’s father, obviously represents in part Yvonne Mitchell’s father. The joining of Appleby’s the family business at 14 leaves no imagination needed in knowing this is a reference to Bertie Joseph, Yvonne’s father, joining Lyons & Co at fourteen.
In fact, this direct representation as a resource, referenced in Mark Garrnet’s biography of the politician Keith Joseph. The Family in its notes has Yvonne’s novel as a source. Keith Joseph was Yvonne Mitchell’s cousin.
The story behind the story through her paragraphs is, as I’ve mentioned before, a wonderful technique of writing that Yvonne is brilliant at, as is also her questioning aspect. Ruth, from the Dance side of the family tree in her questioning of the family’s lack of visiting others outside of the family homes. This reason for such a limited scope, the same furnishings in their homes put into the context of the now socially mobile element of the family. Moving from the East End of London into dreamed-of West Hampstead then to Carriage Folk had brought about a conformity.
The three sisters, Esther, Barbara, and Helen, all go through their own personal challenges as they grow older. They experience marriage, loss, and mental illness as they grow older. As their father’s illness advances, we see with war (WW2) always in the background the daughter’s duties a complexity of family pressures. Albert, their father’s second wife Betty and her instruction to the sisters concerning their father, adds to the family’s internal friction between the main characters. The Family is Yvonne Mitchell’s story of the unexcepted occuring in certain circles of family members. Within the family, members establish a hierarchical order based on factors such as popularity, cousinship, and second marriage. In her book, Yvonne Mitchell highlights the question of loyalty to others, where personal ambitions come into conflict with family duty and the emotional circumstances of one’s plans in life pursuits. The family members gathered for a meeting in discussion to ask whether Esther is to be allowed to pursue her acting career reflects a hierarchal theme set in Yvonne’s The Family. Yvonne Mitchell is again exceptional in her ability to give you a human story which focuses on the human condition. Complexities created through characters’ interactions with one another, a theme Yvonne writes upon with skill. Wit, sadness, joy, love and knocks we all encounter ourselves, expressed among her words.
The pages of 'Martha On Sunday' by Yvonne Mitchell are brimming with rapid thoughts, enacted scenes, and many characters. Through the consciousness of the actor (or not), we encounter a multitude of scenarios from the stage, domestic life, friends, and cast members on a Sunday. What is from the world of theatre and what is of Martha herself as a woman, is constantly in question. Yvonne puts identity on trial. Who is Martha really? This constant conversation with herself is thoughts aloud to the reader. Martha, in her acting profession, plays many parts where witty interludes quickly visit and depart.
A thought in reply to Miss Treeble, a teacher from Martha's early years while attending Perkins the dog nose injury.
"And anyway, Miss Treeble the great thing to remember is not to cry over milk which hasn't yet been spilt. The planet spins, and somewhere each night through Hamlet dies, Hamlet lives again. Death doesn't come easily to immortals."
'Martha on Sunday' is a departure from Yvonne's earlier writings. We are here in a continuing flow of thought at a pace. Its style initially threw me off, but you quickly get where Yvonne is putting you as the reader. In the stalls, seated, while the performance plays and thereafter.
'God is Inexperienced', Yvonne Mitchell’s 6th novel has the unusual quality of a novel within a novel. Chris is an aspiring writer, living at home. Disillusioned with his routes into employment and the mediocrity of his day-to-day living. Questions and answers arise in him after a trip to an exhibition at the Hayward, looking upon the paintings of Joan Miro.
Chris looks upon Joan’s paintings, and this stirs emotions within him. His prior visits to the Hayward to see Pop Art, in his thoughts, he could do better, came to the forefront of his thinking. Thinking of his father, he realises he was like his father. For things he, Chris, had liked, it said, could have done better. Did Joan experience the same?
Yvonne Mitchell, herself a painter, in these opening chapters, takes you with her characters on a night out with Chris and a young woman he had met at the exhibition.
A concert with a performance by Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline Dupré at the Festival Hall in the Barbican shared with Claire removes a layer of inhibition that he felt upon himself. The incredible performance leaves him feeling overwhelmed, with no self-awareness in that moment. For the first time in years, things he once looked on in envy had ceased to be.
Chris’s novel developing in his thoughts. Planned scenarios, he forms the ideas and settings where these characters will play out their scenes.
Yvonne then places you at a new beginning, Chris’s novel. As if it were a second act, followed by a third.
In the writer’s hands, the reader partakes in Chris’s formulation. The people inside this fictional story now coming alive and gaining purpose as it is being written. These characters take on a different shape as Chris creates a father figure called Ed, who manipulates his own desires and plans within the story regarding a gifted piano player in his son. This boy is central to Ed's dealings and plans around his son's performances.
The publishing industry and world of agents make an appearance as if by cameo regarding Chris among the pages. An insider’s take with a dose of dry wit and imagination in telling through Chris?
Yvonne Mitchell, as a writer, has brought another new dynamic to her storytelling. Having read several of her previous books. Here again, a unique way to approach a novel and bring something unexpected to the reader skillfully executed.
'But Answer Came There None', a book title taken from a line from Lewis Caroll's Walrus and the Carpenter and the last novel to be written by Yvonne Mitchell. Contains among its pages some of the strongest descriptive paragraphs I've read in her written works. Through evocative storytelling, this book's themes of death, heaven, and hell set in a geriatric ward are powerfully haunting.
I often come away from reading Yvonne's novels with a sense there is a twin meaning, the humorous and serious in her passages. One of Yvonne's exceptional skills in her writing is this doubling up of meaning.
This novel has a different feel than her previous books. You have a sense of unease as the reader in approaching some passages. A description of a vacuum cleaner, for example, gives you the chills. It may seem like a mundane, uninteresting device. Its purpose is to clean, and that's exactly what it does. Yvonne here is spectacular in her description, bringing the machine's torturous one-note sound as it vacuums early mornings on the ward, into a vivid, haunting machine, "motes into the voracious belly bag of the central life-swallower." This is one of many reflective written passages where the picking up of the normal becomes distorted into the eerily disturbing.
It is also a book of questions about the unknown put, then challenged in reply. The desire to read more of the authors' work once you start is addictive. There is happily a broad selection of Yvonne Mitchell's novels available still, through secondhand source suppliers. I keep a copy of her Fables on the coffee table, which is a terrific way to read a little of Yvonne's writings when wanting a quick read of her work.
This gem of a book is becoming ever scarcer to find. Published by the Mid Northumberland Art Group with illustrations by Bert Hollander a French artist, the limited-edition numbered Yvonne Mitchell signed copies titled 'Fables', are based in the tradition of Aesop.
The inside flyleaf introduction describes this book as fables for adults but without morals, which is how I read these tales of symbolism with something of the dysfunctional in the characters portrayed.
Yvonne Mitchell injects a humorous, you know what's coming element in some characters' predicaments. Making you smile at the conclusion of, for example, The Kind King.
'Fables' published just two years before Yvonne's death in 1979 is another avenue in direction, adding to Mitchell's diverse scope and skill as a writer. You could easily see a second series of Fables by Yvonne in her later years. We know Yvonne Mitchell had been working on a biography of the Redgrave family, which has yet been unpublished.
If 'Fables' is to be one of Yvonne Mitchell's last published works, it is a testament to Yvonne's diverse grasp on her ability to bring the reader in via another literary style of writing. We have a vast collection of Mitchell's words to explore, ranging from novels to biographies and children's books.
Fables, a book that is best kept in view as you go about your daily duties.
A quick fix of Yvonne's Fables' writings has that return dip back into pull ingredient in spades.
Colette: A Taste for Life
The early 1970s not only saw Yvonne Mitchell with her biography of Colette, 'A Taste For Life,' published but also her own one woman shows touring the country, Colette. Colette’s Cheri, a five-part serialisation drama on BBC2, where Yvonne Mitchell plays Colette’s heroine Lea in the book adaptation, appeared on our television screens. A Radio Times written feature from April 1973 tells of Yvonne Mitchell visiting locations in France with Russell Miller. Maurice Goudeket Colette’s third husband and Colette de Jouvenel Colette’s only child both speak to Yvonne and give insights into the life of Colette.
Yvonne was asked to write a biography of 'Colette' after her performance as Lea in Claude Whatman's directed BBC2 serial series, Cheri. Interviewed in 1979, Yvonne Mitchell spoke of visits to France researching her subject.
"I sort of snooped around St Sauveur,' she recalls. It was easy to get the feel of her-she was a woman of the earth, immersed in the most basic things from the earth: plants, insects, birds, anything that lived. This absorption began in childhood; she had a basically very happy childhood with a really wonderful mother, Sido. Her mother would stop her skipping to say, "Look at that little bird in the tree." She was taught to observe the tiniest things. She used to get up early and walk about two miles to be the first to uncover the first primrose of the day and to see the snail waking up."
From Colette’s upbringing, her close relationship with her mother Sido and father Jules-Joseph Colette. A later marriage to Willy, Yvonne, goes into detail of the hours Colette spent locked in a room by Willy, having to write as one of Willy’s ghost writers. The novelist, actress, journalism, and through the world wars. The chapters of Colette’s biography follow a course of significant figures that influenced Colette in her writing.
Yvonne Mitchell’s 'A Taste For Life' wonderfully combines the depth of a well-researched book with a storytelling writing style. You not only come away from reading with a feeling of an insight into Colette as the person, but Yvonne’s own understanding of her subject. Brought to life through her own beautifully written passages, adds a flow, a rhythm to each paragraph. Added extracts from Colette’s novels, works alongside Yvonne’s words.
Yvonne, the novelist, provides us with more than just an account, a storyteller’s skill, with a reading audience in mind. With many illustrations and photographs throughout the book, this biography of Colette is a fitting companion to Colette’s many books. For those that saw Yvonne play Colette on stage, I can only imagine.
In Yvonne’s biography of Colette, we get a flavour of what was a performance. Both Colette and Yvonne knew the theatre, and the written word intimately.
An intriguing insight into Yvonne's writing process when writing this biography of Colette, is spoken of again in an interview with Yvonne in 1979. "I could not write unless I was in bed with the curtains drawn and the light on and with a scarf around my neck. Colette, too used to have the curtains drawn and a scarf round her neck when she was writing, which was strange for a woman so attached to air and earth. I suppose being an actress, it was like playing a part in the theatre-the part had taken me over."
Yvonne Mitchell
The same sky: A play in three acts
Yvonne Mitchell's strong work ethic involved not only authoring novels but also crafting a play. During joblessness and the belief that she may never work again, she opted to live with her sister. Yvonne, having no clue how to start, adopted a template that someone had previously created.
Building on the themes of Romeo and Juliet, an original setting, a set of characters were explored. The Same Sky tells the tale of a conflict between a Jewish family and their daughter's romance with a non-Jewish person. This is a story about a young couple from two different families, whose love for each other is tested by the tensions arising from their contrasting religious backgrounds.
Opposed to the couple's marriage and marrying outside the faith. Their families putting barriers between the lovers. This story reflected what Yvonne had heard from her sister while working at a children's play centre. She witnessed an animosity in some young children between the faiths.
Set at the outbreak of WWII. The play directly confronted the prejudices of various beliefs. Yvonne knew it would be hard to get produced, to be picked up, but was determined not to allow her work to be constrained by commercial considerations.
In her own words, knowing work was scarce, she wrote as a need for something to do. Was this her downplaying her reasons for writing? As something to do.? Or a direct commentary. Her own witnessing of a prejudice, and a reflection of where that can lead to, in a family setting, or for the generality.
With a three-year cap from being written and to the stage. Yvonne would finally see her play on the stage. 1950 saw the Nottingham Playhouse put on a performance. What followed was more theatre productions and radio broadcasts.
Cathy Away
First, finding a copy of ‘Cathy Away’ is difficult. After reading Yvonne Mitchell’s novels, I was keen to read her books written for children. Finding a copy for sale via a well-known bidding site, a bid placed, a winning bid and a copy in my possession. Yvonne also published another Cathy book called "Cathy at Home." This book is extremely rare. Luckily, I could source a picture of this second book directly via Cordelia Monsey, Yvonne’s daughter. Who kindly sent me pictures while she was in France. Cathy’s destination, as would have it in the book.
When reading 'Cathy Away', you immediately become immersed in Cathy's thoughts. From her initial apprehension of spending her first time away from home and staying with her cousins, the Swann's in France. Yvonne employs a technique in her novels, both for adults and children, where the main protagonist describes the characters, introducing them to the reader.
Identifying with Cathy and her worries early in the book, in questioning her sleeping arrangements if she accepted her aunties invitation. We relate to our own experiences when growing up. Fears of the unknown and being unsure are all part of our childhood. Cathy’s security comes via her teddy. This security represented by teddy develops later in the book, where a selfless act occurs.
Cathy’s descriptions of her mother and father when asking them for advice on accepting this trip abroad are analytical and bring a child's honesty to her decision making.
Although this is not always the case and self questioning is a part of Cathy’s thinking. Questioning and being critical of herself, Cathy places questions on herself in her behaviour.
When describing Mr Swann’s paintings, Cathy goes from seeing his work as a meaningless mess but later sees there was meaning in what he did. Explained, as she was “not understanding enough to see it.” Not being clever enough. This is Cathy's reasoning.
Yvonne masterfully separates herself from the adult and immerses into the child's perspective of witnessing those who share her life's happenings on holiday. Bringing, as in Cathy’s age of 11, a curiosity associated with being young. This is all wonderfully told to the reader in a diary-like format of each day merging into the next.
When in France, Cathy’s adventures with her relatives are plentiful. Just like our own recollections of extended holidays, Cathy becomes completely immersed with her cousin's activities in the out-of-school August break. Exploring the cellar below the house, a trip to the circus where a monkey gets loose and later an accident on a bike. These are all encompassed with Cathy’s thoughts and her judgement applied to her cousin's activities.
Now on reading this book and knowing about Yvonne’s novels. The bike accident incident near the end of the book had me thinking a jaw dropping unseen moment was coming.
I loved this book. It reminds you of a time in your own life where play, adventure, and shared experiences with friends and cousins, in Cathy's case, combined with the long summer break, were adventurous.
Yvonne Mitchell’s adult novels, the biography of Colette and play writing. Her ability to write and master that writing in its many forms. Her children's book ‘Cathy Away’ is a part of.
Cathy At Home
‘Cathy At Home,’ a book I took as a book too far. Never able to source a reference to, let alone own and complete my collection of Yvonne Mitchell’s books. In being able to read. Not to be so. As referenced in ‘Cathy Away,’ I had luckily required a picture of the cover via Cordelia, Cathy’s story told from home I had accepted as a loss cause. This changed.
A story in itself, much like Cathy’s daily experiences with the Swann family. I came to read this book as of a time before, in a Dickens like serialization. Via instalments, Cordelia generously sent me chapters of the book as photographs. Over several weeks pages would arrive via my email, where the anticipation of another arrival brought a sense of excitement to my weekly in-box.
This episode's delivery of Yvonne’s book created for me an attachment to this book different from her others, where the characters' adventures told within became comforting, a time to immerse in and enjoy. Sat by the window looking onto Wentworth Avenue, as the daylight faded outside, set a temperature like feel around the book. Set in the winter months reflected what I was witnessing outside as November drew ever more near. Although it was autumn, the air carried a chill.
Cathy is now at home in London, four months on from time spent holidaying in France with the Swann family through summer in ‘Cathy Away’. With a reversal of location and set in the winter months, we now see the Swann family, Jimmy, Louise, Lenora and their actress mother Joey visiting Cathy. Cathy’s mother and their lodger, Godfrey, a saxophone player. D, Cathy’s father, has to go to fly to New York on business. This is also the case with the Swann’s, where their father is not with them, staying in France preparing for an art exhibition.
Each character of the Swann’s from ‘Cathy Away,’ Cathy gives us a list of descriptions of those belonging to each family, hers and the Swann’s. Creating lists is something that occurs in both books. A list of who wants what and what gifts purchased around the Christmas period by Cathy show again the orderly applied, a list made. As in our own lives, the ordinary turns into the unorderly all by itself. List or no list. Cathy’s father D, for example, in his sudden rush for his plane, Cathy rationalises her disappointment in watching her father leave.
“Life is often like this I find. Something new happens, like the Swanns coming to stay with us - you prepare yourself for it, it begins and then suddenly something you weren’t expecting occurs and you have to adjust yourself again.”
A thread of the ordinary we witness in Cathy’s life turning to the unexpected is a theme through ‘Cathy Away’ and ‘Cathy at Home.’
Jimmy’s attachment to a wart - hog and concerns about a kinkajou at London Zoo, leading to an all out search for a missing person, a trip to see Joey acting on a film set where a walk on part for the children by the director suggested, are all of examples of the ordinary turning into anything but.
Cathy’s initial worries on the Swann’s finding their visit to London and staying at her home dull compared to their home in the sun with olive trees and the sea nearby soon evaporate as events take over.
Yvonne, in her description of characters when applied to the situations they find themselves, exposes each of their personalities. When the unplanned for happens, those that had caused the occurrence, those that react and bring a worry upon others, Cathy is our commentator. I found myself in both camps, cause, effect and acting on. You side with Jimmy, in his need to end the suffering he was witnessing, but also the need for boundaries placed on Jimmy, Louise and Lenora in their adventures. Each of the children, in how they think and react, impulse, cautious, caring emotions are all at work within the group.
The Cathy books by Yvonne Mitchell appeal to the young and the adult alike. Each in transporting you into the events and experiences had by Cathy, but also entices to the surface, alongside Cathy’s present, your own recollections of a past younger self. Of old, at school, where in description Cathy’s cousins could very well be any grouping of children exploring in one another's company. Each of us becomes shaped by those we kept company with. Cathy invites us to share her time spent with her cousins, the Swann’s.
While talking to Cordelia about her mother's Cathy books, she brought up a crossover, which is common in Yvonne's stories that mix fact with fiction. Visiting the zoo and going to the film studios were both experiences she had when young.
Yvonne Mitchell, the writer.
Television Interviews with Yvonne Mitchell are short and far between. Yvonne appeared on programmes such as the Book Programme with Robert Robinson, sadly if not swiped, no interviews are yet to be repeated.
An episode of Those British Faces, occasionally shown on television, has in its series a documentary on Yvonne’s films, which touches on her written work. Narrated by Richard Todd, this lifts sections from Yvonne’s own book, Actress.
Luckily, we have interviews via the printed press and magazines, with the bonus of others' books where Yvonne Mitchell appears in the pages of.
It is worth tracking down a copy of Ivor Brown's series of photographic records and critical analysis for a look back at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre of 1953. Titled, 'Shakespeare Memorial Theatre 1951-53,' this book contains some stunning pictures of the cast for productions in 53.
With photography by Angus McBean, pictures inside include portraits and on-stage photographs of Yvonne Mitchell.
But what about Yvonne herself, about her writing?
In an interview for the Express in February 1960, conducted by Margret Stevenson, Yvonne gave some insights into her writing, and authors she admired.
“To enjoy life, one should live in the present.” A passionate reader, authors she admired. Kingsley Amis, William Goulding, Graham Greene. No set time for writing, snatching time where she can. She never writes in the morning.
A more thorough interview by The Scotsman, August 14 1976, Yvonne discussed seeing herself primarily as an actress. Maybe questioned?
The interview starts with a look at Yvonne’s first written work, with her play. On moving to France, the time spent there; she wrote five novels and three children's books. During her pregnancy, she wrote her first novel, which took approximately as long as her pregnancy. A verdict on her own early novels, Yvonne sees as just stories, lacking any sense of urgency or necessity.
This, I would venture to argue, is Yvonne playing her own work down. For as with, for example, her second novel, Looking For Julian, there is most certainly an urgency in Julian the painter. His tortured outlook, desire for recognition, with a family in witness to his struggle, pulls the reader into his mental difficulties. The ending took me by surprise; I never saw it coming..
The interview continues with Yvonne coming to her fifth novel. Here, with this written work, we hear Yvonne, in her own words, quoted.
“But then came my fifth novel, Martha on Sunday, when I suddenly discovered the theme I was going to explore, from then on. It’s the idea that we don't just live one life on one level, or if we do, it's a pretty blinkered life.”
It was the later novels, Martha on Sunday and God is Inexperienced which explores the difference between behaving and being. It was here the critics; we are told, started taking Yvonne as a serious novelist.
Yvonne is most obviously a novelist of talent, not only from her later novels but also from her former work.
Reading her novels in order of publication. I can guarantee you, Yvonne Mitchell, and her ability to put a conflict in its many forms upon the human condition. Her novels evoke emotions.
With seeing herself primarily as an actress, well, maybe not.
“Until a few months ago, I always told myself I was an actress first, but I published a few books. Now I’m wondering if writing will not win in the end. Of course, there is a link between the two.”
On writing. In longhand.
“I'm completely haphazard and quite disorganised, for one thing. I write in the bath, with a sort of board stretched across. I write on envelopes, backs of bills, often forgetting to number them. I think I discovered in my adolescence that if I aimed and planned for something, nothing would happen at all. I’m a creature of muddle.”
Yvonne Mitchell
An episode of Those British Faces, occasionally shown on television, has in its series a documentary on Yvonne’s films, which touches on her written work. Narrated by Richard Todd, this lifts sections from Yvonne’s own book, Actress.
Luckily, we have interviews via the printed press and magazines, with the bonus of others' books where Yvonne Mitchell appears in the pages of.
It is worth tracking down a copy of Ivor Brown's series of photographic records and critical analysis for a look back at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre of 1953. Titled, 'Shakespeare Memorial Theatre 1951-53,' this book contains some stunning pictures of the cast for productions in 53.
With photography by Angus McBean, pictures inside include portraits and on-stage photographs of Yvonne Mitchell.
But what about Yvonne herself, about her writing?
In an interview for the Express in February 1960, conducted by Margret Stevenson, Yvonne gave some insights into her writing, and authors she admired.
“To enjoy life, one should live in the present.” A passionate reader, authors she admired. Kingsley Amis, William Goulding, Graham Greene. No set time for writing, snatching time where she can. She never writes in the morning.
A more thorough interview by The Scotsman, August 14 1976, Yvonne discussed seeing herself primarily as an actress. Maybe questioned?
The interview starts with a look at Yvonne’s first written work, with her play. On moving to France, the time spent there; she wrote five novels and three children's books. During her pregnancy, she wrote her first novel, which took approximately as long as her pregnancy. A verdict on her own early novels, Yvonne sees as just stories, lacking any sense of urgency or necessity.
This, I would venture to argue, is Yvonne playing her own work down. For as with, for example, her second novel, Looking For Julian, there is most certainly an urgency in Julian the painter. His tortured outlook, desire for recognition, with a family in witness to his struggle, pulls the reader into his mental difficulties. The ending took me by surprise; I never saw it coming..
The interview continues with Yvonne coming to her fifth novel. Here, with this written work, we hear Yvonne, in her own words, quoted.
“But then came my fifth novel, Martha on Sunday, when I suddenly discovered the theme I was going to explore, from then on. It’s the idea that we don't just live one life on one level, or if we do, it's a pretty blinkered life.”
It was the later novels, Martha on Sunday and God is Inexperienced which explores the difference between behaving and being. It was here the critics; we are told, started taking Yvonne as a serious novelist.
Yvonne is most obviously a novelist of talent, not only from her later novels but also from her former work.
Reading her novels in order of publication. I can guarantee you, Yvonne Mitchell, and her ability to put a conflict in its many forms upon the human condition. Her novels evoke emotions.
With seeing herself primarily as an actress, well, maybe not.
“Until a few months ago, I always told myself I was an actress first, but I published a few books. Now I’m wondering if writing will not win in the end. Of course, there is a link between the two.”
On writing. In longhand.
“I'm completely haphazard and quite disorganised, for one thing. I write in the bath, with a sort of board stretched across. I write on envelopes, backs of bills, often forgetting to number them. I think I discovered in my adolescence that if I aimed and planned for something, nothing would happen at all. I’m a creature of muddle.”
Yvonne Mitchell
