Kennedy & Boyd - Cleopatra's People

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Cleopatra's People


	Naomi Mitchison. Edited with an Introduction by Isobel Murray
	9781849210331
	SERIES The Naomi Mitchison Library
	Paperback 106 pages

	Published 2 June 2010 UK Price £12.95 US Price $18.95
When Naomi Mitchison, queen of the historical novel, undertook Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, already symbol of a great love story, something remarkable was bound to ensue. But Mitchison did not choose to follow her great predecessors Plutarch and Shakespeare, with the tale of Mark Antony's fatal romance with 'the serpent of old Nile', and the pair's ill-fated wars with Octavian. Her chief interest in producing a new Cleopatra is shown even in her tantalising title, Cleopatra's People. The novel starts with the next generation, with the children of the Queen and of Charmian, one of her 'mates'. The impact of Cleopatra's life and personality is reflected through them, and their efforts to follow in her wake. But wider than that, we see that Cleopatra's people are the people of Egypt, and that she cherished dreams of a great, peaceful trading empire to the south, in Africa and even India. Mitchison's Cleopatra is a powerful woman, immersed more in the affairs of state than in love affairs with Caesar and Antony, although her love for the latter is true. The Queen's dreams for Egypt are greater still: perhaps only a woman and a royal one could have dreamed them in face of Rome.

Naomi Mitchison [1897-1999] was a literary phenomenon.
Tireless in her writing, unafraid and often highly unconventional in her opinions, she left an extraordinary legacy.
Her novels for adults and children - based on the classical ancient world, and on the immediately contemporary - stressed at different times her deep interest in Scottish and African societies, as well her concerns for the future.
She also wrote poetry and plays, memoirs, a war diary, book reviews, political articles, and many letters.