Josephine Tey

"Josphine Tey" was baptized Elizabeth MacKintosh and, as the name suggests, she was born in the Scottish Highlands.

This versatile and unusual woman began to write poems and short stories when a child. Under the pen-name "Gordon Daviot" she achieved fame as a playwright, and it was in Richard of Bordeaux that John Gielgud starred to make theatrical history in 1932.

Her first experiment in crime was in 1929 with a detective novel, The Man in the Queue, which was written for a competition. For her second crime story she assumed the now familiar name of "Josephine Tey" - Josephine being her mother's Christian name, Tey her grandmother's maiden name - which she quickly made popular with A Shilling for Candles (1936); and later, Miss Pym Disposes (1946); The Franchise Affair (1948); Brat Farrar (1949); To Love and Be Wise (1950); The Daughter of Time (1951). The last title to be published before her untimely death in 1952, The Privateer (reset 1958), a novel based on the life of Henry Morgan, buccaneer, was originally published under the pseudonym "Gordon Daviot." It was not until after the author's death that the manuscript of her last detective story, The Singing Sands, was found among her papers.

Sir John Gielgud wrote: "We are not so rich in dramatic authors in this country that when they are as talented and original as Gordon Daviot, we can afford to lose them. The theatre is poorer for a unique talent, and I for a dearly valued friend."