Writing in 1952 ‘The Stage’ newspaper, Yvonne describes herself primarily as an actress and pursuing a career in acting. A statement of fact, no doubt then, although she had written her play ‘The Same Sky’ in the 1940s. ‘The Bed-Sitter’, her first novel published in 1959, came out just two years after ‘Actress’. While living in France in the 1960’, we see her writing five novels and three children's books. With her books continuing to be published through the 1970s, Yvonne’s success as an actress is equal to her success as a writer.  

Yvonne Mitchell, the author. Whether writing novels, biographies, plays, or children’s books, her extensive collection of published works is impressive. Understandably, when thinking of Yvonne’s career, what immediately comes to mind is her stage, film, radio, and television work as an actress. As an actress, her career spanned from the mid-1930s to the 1970s. Her use of words on the page as a way of channeling her thoughts is apparent from an early age.  Yvonne used written verse, poems, and short stories as her creative outlets. It's not surprising that creativity found its way onto the stage as well. 

Fueled by her imagination and a penchant for challenging societal norms, prejudices, and beliefs, Yvonne’s writing brings these subjects under examination and onto the page. Covering different styles of writing, genres, and differing reading age groups, as an author you could arguably say that Yvonne was first a writer, then an actress. We know from later interviews that she would question where identifying primarily as an actor may not be the case. 

In an interview in the 1976 ‘Scotsman’ she states “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.”

As an author, she often adopted a semi-biographical approach to delve into human behavior and nature. This is clear in her inaugural written work, which marked her first success.

In her play, ‘The Same Sky’. Originally titled ‘Here Choose I’ and written when she was out of work.

Building on the themes of Romeo and Juliet, and with an original setting, a set of characters face distinct challenges within a framework of conflicting beliefs. ‘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 put barriers between the lovers. This story reflected what Yvonne had heard from her sister while working at a children’s play centre. She witnessed 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 out of a need for something to do. Was she downplaying her reasons for writing? As something to do.? Or a direct commentary. Her own witnessing of prejudice, and a reflection of where that can lead, in a family setting or for the generality.

With a three-year cap on being written to the stage. Yvonne would finally see her play on the stage. In 1950 saw the Nottingham Playhouse put on a performance. What followed were more theatre productions and radio broadcasts of Yvonne’s play.

‘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. Both actresses are in their first credited speaking film roles. Yvonne had an earlier uncredited part playing a factory worker in the 1941 film ‘Love on the Dole,’ and Edith Evans had worked in silent movies.

Yvonne Mitchell’s personal experiences 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 earlier 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.

‘The Bed Sitter,’ published in 1959 is a 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 while he remains equally disconnected from his native country. Ellen is a would-be actress seemingly without a passion for anything or anyone. Karl, a young German immigrant, is a struggling poet, unable to express his love for her and equally unable to find a sense of belonging. He simply drifts. The relationship between these two central characters forms the basis of this novel.

‘Frame for Julian’. 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 perspectives of the children and Julian's wife, Augusta.

The attitudes 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.

'A Year InTime', is Yvonne Mitchell's third novel. Rachel, a young girl, experiences the loss of her mother and rejection from her stepmother. Losing her father too, Rachel feels abandoned. 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. When Rachel later travels to New York for a play, her time with the director helps her discover what truly matters in her life.

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 ‌artistic licence. 

‘The Family’. 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.

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?

'God is Inexperienced', Yvonne Mitchell’s sixth 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.

'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 an elderly people's ward, are powerfully haunting.

'Fables'. 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 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.

‘Cathy Away’. 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.

‘Cathy at Home’. Cathy is now at home in London, four months on from the 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 fly to New York on business. This is also the case with the Swanns, where their father is not with them, staying in France preparing for an art exhibition.

‘But Wednesday Cried’. Ursula Eason's beautiful illustrations make this a wonderful book for children. With names corresponding to the days of the week, seven kittens display cleverness and a talent for turning phrases in unexpected ways.