Dorothy Erskine Muir
Dorothy Erskine Muir (1889-1977) was one of seventeen children of John Sheepshanks, Bishop of Norwich. She attended Oxford, worked as an academic tutor, and began writing professionally to supplement the family income after the unexpected death of her husband in 1932. Muir published historical biographies and local histories, as well as three accomplished detective novels, In Muffled Night (1933), Five to Five (1934) and In Memory of Charles (1941). Each is an intricate fictional account based on an unsolved true crime.
Read MoreMary Fitt
Mary Fitt was the pen-name used for her crime novels by Dr. Kathleen Freeman (1897-1959), who was lecturer in Greek at University College of South Wales and Monmouthsire, Cardiff between 1919 and 1946. Freeman had a working knowledge of Latin, French, German, Italian and ancient and modern Greek. During WWII, Freeman delivered lectures on Greece to the Ministry of Information, and published Greek translations, such as The Murder of Herodes, and The Work and Life of Solon. She resigned from the university in 1946 to pursue her research and writing; publishing under the pseudonmys Mary Fitt, Stuart Mary Wick, Care St. Donat and Caroline Cory. As Mary Fitt, Freeman wrote 27 books and a number of short stories.
Bruce Graeme
Bruce Graeme (1900-1982) is one of the many pen names of British author Graham Montague Jeffries, who also wrote as Peter Bourne, David Graeme, Fielding Hope and Jeffrey Montague. He was born in London and served in the Queen's Westminster Rifles in 1918, as well as working as a reporter and film producer and serving as a founding member of the Crime Writers Association. He was astonishingly prolific in crime and adventure fiction, writing more than 100 books over his career.
Read MoreAlan Clutton-Brock
Alan Clutton-Brock (1904 -1976) was a well-known art critic and author, who's family were the last residents of Chastleton House, now a National Trust property. Murder at Liberty Hall (1941) was his only detective novel.
Read MoreChristopher St John Sprigg
Christopher St John Sprigg (1907 - 1937) came from a family of writers and journalists. He was a newspaper reporter, short-story writer, magazine editor, advertising director, non-fiction and author and poet before he published his first detective novel at the age of 25. Sprigg published six detective novels between 1933 and 1935 (a seventh was published posthumously) before his dead in the Spanish Civil war in February 1937.
Read MoreDorothy Bowers
Dorothy Bowers (1901 - 1948) wrote 5 detective novels over a ten year period. Seen by many contemporaries as the logical successor to Dorothy L Sayers, her books were intricately plotted with clues subtly planted throughout the narrative. She was a perceptive writer for whom adept characterisation held equal importance to plot. She was only writer selected for the Detection Club in 1948, but passed away from tuberculosis later that year.
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