Anna Mendelssohn

Anna Mendelssohn (born Anna Mendleson, 1948 – 15 November 2009), who wrote under the name Grace Lake, was a British writer, poet and political activist. She came from a left-wing political family, was inspired by the Paris student risings in May 1968, and became a political radical in Britain.

Mendelsohn was convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions as part of The Angry Brigade, a ruling she insisted was unjust. After her release she raised a family, resumed her education and devoted her life to art and to poetry. She grew somewhat isolated from the rest of society, but her friends saw to it that some of her work was published.

School Mendleson was the daughter of Maurice Mendleson, a market trader from Stockport in Cheshire. According to Peter Riley, writing in The Guardian, her father was from a "working class Jewish" background, fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, and was a Labour councillor in Stockport; the Mendleson family was later described by Des Wilson as "politically radical". Mendleson was educated at Stockport High School for Girls, where she became Head Girl. She was reported to have been a "brilliant and unruly pupil".

Dropping out of university In September 1967, Mendleson went up to the University of Essex to read English Literature and American History. In 1969 she dropped out of her university course rather than continue into her final year, but remained living in Wivenhoe around the university for several months. In early 1970 she was living in York Way in the King's Cross area of London, and was a close friend of a group including some university friends who were living a semi-communal life in Stamford Hill; among them was Hilary Creek. Mendleson and Creek were supporting a group which had squatted empty flats in Arbour Square in Stepney. She became a friend of Jim Greenfield after meeting him on leaving a political meeting. After the arrests the police linked the case to other stolen cheque books and, on 11 June 1971, Mendleson was one of six people to be charged with conspiracy to defraud. However she had jumped bail and her picture was printed in the Police Gazette as a wanted person. People arrested in a police raid in Wivenhoe in April 1971 were shown pictures of Mendleson and asked if they recognised her.

Amhurst Road Needing a base to produce Strike, the group decided to rent a flat in London. On 2 July 1971, John Barker and Hilary Creek posing as a married couple, and Mendleson using the name 'Nancy Pye', rented the top floor flat at 359 Amhurst Road in Stoke Newington. One of Mendleson's main concerns was that the group should continue to support the defence of Jake Prescott and Ian Purdie, who were charged with carrying out two bombings for The Angry Brigade anarchist group. The duplicating equipment at Amhurst Road was used to produce Angry Brigade Communiqué No. 11 published on 31 July 1971, and Mendleson drafted the Angry Brigade Moonlighter's Cell Communiqué which followed it.

Police raid With regular police raids on people known to be supportive of the Angry Brigade and with Mendleson a wanted person (although for cheque fraud only), the police were interested in finding any addresses where she might be found. Mendleson was keeping in regular touch with her family in Stockport and a police informer there passed the Amhurst Road address to police on 18 August 1971. An observation was set up and when Jim Greenfield was seen leaving the flat, a search warrant was obtained. At 16:15 on 20 August the police entered the flat and arrested Mendleson, Creek, Barker and Greenfield. Mendleson again gave her name as Nancy Pye. The police reported that their searches of 359 Amhurst Road discovered not only duplicating equipment on which Angry Brigade publications had been produced, but a stick of gelignite, two submachine guns, a Browning pistol and 81 rounds of ammunition. Mendleson was remanded in custody at Holloway Prison and was eventually charged with possession of the armaments and conspiracy to cause explosions. Mendleson's fingerprints were found on a copy of Rolling Stone magazine used to wrap a bomb planted at the Italian consulate in Manchester, and she was also charged with attempting to cause this explosion.

Stoke Newington Eight trial Mendleson found prison life extremely stressful and at the committal hearing complained that five months in Holloway had caused "isolation and repression, both physical and mental". The resulting trial of eight defendants at the Old Bailey became the longest criminal trial at that point in English legal history, Mendleson was one of three defendants to represent themselves; the "Stoke Newington Eight Defence Group" argued that this was the right decision as they had challenged prosecution witnesses and exposed several as liars. However her health suffered and she was ill throughout much of the trial; on occasion she was too ill to take part at all and the trial had to be halted. She was granted bail during a four-week summer adjournment of the trial, spending the time in Wales.

Notwithstanding her oratory, Mendleson was convicted by a 10–2 majority of conspiracy to cause explosions. She was also found guilty of the possession charges, but not guilty of attempting to cause an explosion in Manchester. The jury foreman asked for "leniency or clemency" for the defendants, which the judge took into account by reducing the overall sentence by five years. Mendleson was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. While being taken down to the cells she called out "I would like to say thank you to the two members of the jury who had faith in us". Along with others convicted in the trial, Mendleson appealed against both verdict and sentence, being represented by Michael Mansfield. The appeals failed.

Parole Mendleson was quietly released on parole in November 1976, just four years after the end of the trial. The news was not disclosed by the Home Office until 13 February 1977, causing a storm of press coverage which one reporter described as "scandalous and distasteful". The issue was raised in Parliament with Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees, saying that Mendleson was no longer a danger to society; William Whitelaw criticised the decision and asserted that protection of the public and police morale came first.

Poetry After her release, she adopted the alternative spelling of her surname Mendelssohn. She spent some time in Sheffield, where she started a family and had three children. Mendelssohn moved to Cambridge in about 1985, studying poetry at St Edmund's College, Cambridge, and devoting her life to poetry and art. She became opposed to technology and disliked judgments based on rationality in favour of those based on an artistic judgment, which led to her life becoming increasingly disconnected from the rest of society. In 1988 two of her poems were published under the title La Facciata as issue number 5 of Poetical Histories, with a cover design by the author.

Grace Lake Three volumes of her poetry were published by Equipage under the literary pseudonym Grace Lake.

In 2000, a full book of Mendelssohn's poetry was published by Salt Publishing under its Folio imprint and Equipage, this time not using her pseudonym. As with previous publications, it was due to efforts from others, rather than Mendelssohn herself, that Implacable Art was taken up by its publishers; it included some of her line drawings, and some poetry appeared in handwritten form.

Collections Mendelssohn's personal archive is held at University of Sussex Special Collections, based at The Keep. The collection contains an extensive record of Mendelssohn's work as poet and artist, featuring notebooks, drawing books, art, and draft poems. There is a partial record of Mendelssohn's time in Holloway Prison. The archive was donated to Sussex in 2010 through Mendelssohn's children.

Works I'm working here : the collected poems of Anna Mendelssohn, edited by Sara Crangle, Swindon : Shearsman Books, 2020,