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J. Leslie Mitchell
| Full Name: |
James
Leslie
Mitchell |
| Born: |
February 13, 1901
Auchterless, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK |
| Died: |
February 7, 1935
Welwyn Garden City, Herfordshire, Scotland, UK |
| Occupation: |
Novelist |
| Nationality: |
Scottish |
| Links: |
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Biography
Born in Auchterless, and raised in Arbuthnott in the former county of Kincardineshire, Mitchell started working as a journalist for the Aberdeen Journal and the Scottish Farmer at age 16. In 1919 he joined the Royal Army Service Corps and served in Iran, India and Egypt before enlisting in the Royal Air Force in 1920. In the RAF he worked as a clerk and spent some time in the Middle East. He married Rebecca Middleton in 1925 and they settled in Welwyn Garden City. He began writing full-time in 1929. Mitchell wrote numerous books and shorter works under both his real name and his nom de plume before his early death in 1935 of peritonitis brought on by a perforated ulcer.
Mitchell attracted attention from his earliest attempts at fiction, notably from H. G. Wells, but it was his trilogy entitled A Scots Quair, and in particular its first book Sunset Song, with which he made his mark. A Scots Quair, with its combination of stream-of-consciousness and lyrical use of dialect, is considered to be among the defining works of 20th century Scottish Renaissance. It tells the story of Chris Guthrie, a young woman growing up in the north-east of Scotland in the early 20th century. All three parts of the trilogy have been turned into serials by BBC Scotland, written by Bill Craig, with Vivien Heilbron as Chris. Spartacus, a novel set in the famous slave revolt, is his best-known full-length work outside this trilogy.
Works in the WWEnd Database
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