[2] According to Peter Riley, writing in The Guardian, her father was from a "working class Jewish" background,[3] fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War,[4] and was a Labour councillor in Stockport;[5] the Mendleson family was later described by Des Wilson as "politically radical".
[11] 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.
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.
[18] 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.
[19] 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".
Mendleson said that she understood the feelings behind those who would make bomb attacks on cabinet ministers but doing so "isn't going to get rid of the capitalist system, because there is always somebody to step into his place unless the situation and conditions are right".
The news was not disclosed by the Home Office until 13 February 1977,[27] causing a storm of press coverage which one reporter described as "scandalous and distasteful".
[28] 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.
[27] Her father gave an interview to BBC Radio explaining that prison had had a terrible effect on her, making it impossible for her to concentrate.
Also, a volume of poetry, due to be published by the Common Ground Printing Co-operative, was reportedly removed prior to publication after the printer sought to censor the content.
[30] 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.
[7] Viola Tricolor published in 1993 was followed by Bernache nonnette in 1995; a review of the latter in Angel Exhaust magazine saw it as a critique of left-wing politics since 1970 for seeing the population it hopes to serve as a single group rather than as millions of individual people, a critique which the reviewer Andrew Duncan linked to the poet's own history.
As with previous publication, 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.