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Former "mill girl", Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, wrote this book with a clear mission: believing that in reading stories about working people doing what they could to change things, hearts and minds could be turned towards a better society. In 1910 Ethel Carnie (as she was then) said that the most difficult task "is to teach people to want something better, to sting them into rebellion against poverty, to fire their hearts with a cause". As a passionate reader and regular library user, she knew of the demand for, and influence of, popular fiction and saw this as the way to achieve her dream of a fairer and more equitable world.

In 1983, at the age of 86, Naomi Mitchison published Not By Bread Alone. Sixty years had passed since the publication of her first novel, The Conquered. As a lifelong advocate of socialism and feminism, Mitchison draws upon the speculative imaginary in Not By Bread Alone to put forward and strategise political concerns which remain uncomfortably pertinent. The narrative transports the reader to a now not-so-distant future, where a powerful multinational corporation is close to producing free food for the entire world. It follows a group of scientists spread across continents, working on early GMOs. Their research is funded by the PAX corporation which (like its real-world counterpart) represents the global economic hegemony. Whilst their 'Freefood' policy may appear initially beneficial, the genetically modified crops soon start to present major problems. The scientists must learn from the people of Murngin, who reject PAX's Freefood and instead uphold a symbiotic connection to their land, before it is too late.Mitchison characterised the disastrous consequences of something going wrong with a global single-strain crop supply not as science fiction but as something that might really happen. In 1983, when the novel was first published, the world succeeded in producing the first genetically modified plant but it would be decades before the production of GM crops became as widespread as envisioned in the novel. It remains to be seen whether humankind is yet prepared to heed Naomi Mitchison's warnings.

Naomi Mitchison had travelled to India in 1951 and to Madras (Chennai) in 1958, after which she visited her brother Jack. He was by then living an Indian lifestyle in Calcutta (Kolkata) with which she found it difficult to empathise - in stark contrast to her own later immersion in a Botswana community. As was her habit, she sought to understand the country and her reactions to it by looking at the role of women, in their homes and in society. This led to the writing of Judy and Lakshmi. The developing friendship between two girls is the framework for an open and straightforward account of the ethnic and cultural issues across the country at an important time in its history. It captures with a deft touch the nuances of social interactions and their consequences. The style may be dated, but the message remains relevant.