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Telegraph
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Forget Agatha Christie, this is the real Queen of Crime
Agatha Christie has long been synonymous with the Golden Age of crime writing, that inter-war period when people sought comfort from easily solvable problems, prompting a boom in detective fiction. Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh completed the best-known quartet. But contemporary readers would have crowned someone else as the true Queen of crime: the Scottish writer Josephine Tey, whose novels stood out for their meticulous observations, dry, standoffish wit and her unique voice. Tey (a nom de plume) published a series of six meticulously crafted detective novels between 1929 and 1952: the first, The Man in the Queue, which introduced her shrewd but understated hero, Inspector Grant of Scotland Yard, was an instant critical hit. Now, a new theatrical version of The Daughter of Time, one of her later novels, is set to open at the Charing Cross Theatre – and to revive interest in the 20th century's real Queen of Crime. The groundbreaking novel sees Grant tackle one of the biggest puzzles to plague British history: who really killed the Princes in the Tower? Decades before the historian Philippa Langley would lead the charge to prove that Richard III did not orchestrate the 1483 murder of the two young British heirs, Tey's protagonist was on the – very – cold case. Laid up in a hospital bed, Grant needs something to relieve his boredom when a friend shows him a portrait of the 15th-century king. After staring at it for ages, he concludes: 'I can't remember any murderer, either in my own experience, or in case-histories, who resembled him.' And so he sets out to prove the Plantagenet king's innocence, in what was Tey's fifth novel featuring Grant. But Tey didn't only write great mysteries – her own life was one, too. She never gave interviews, describing herself to a friend as a 'lone wolf' and keeping her private life firmly under wraps. Born in Inverness in 1896, the eldest of three sisters, her real name was Elizabeth 'Beth' MacKintosh. Her father, Colin, was a greengrocer, whose own parents were illiterate Gaelic-speaking crofters. Tey wasn't even her only pen name: her first novels were published as Gordon Daviot, which was also the name attached to most of her plays; she also used F Craigie Howe for a 1946 comedy at Glasgow's Citizens' Theatre. From the age of 27, she lived a double life. She moved back to Inverness after her mother died, writing and looking after her father until his death in 1950, but would travel down on the sleeper train twice a year for a fortnight in London. There, she would become an entirely different character, swapping her dutiful Scottish life with its tweed skirts and cardigans for a glamorous London one. There was even a costume change: from Kings Cross she would go straight to Debenhams on Oxford Street, where she stored her London wardrobe, complete with furs. She stayed at the Cowdray, once the largest women's club in the world, on Cavendish Square, spending her days lunching with friends or at the races, and her evenings at the theatre. She even made it into Tatler: there is a 1934 photo of Tey on holiday with friends in Portmeirion, the Welsh coastal town. Tey never married although there were rumours of a lover who was lost during the First World War. Many of her thespian friends, who included the actress Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies and her partner, Marda Vanne, were gay, prompting speculation about Tey's own sexuality. Vanne even confessed to having strong feelings for Tey, although these were not reciprocated. Author Val McDermid thinks Tey is the most interesting of the great female writers of the so-called Golden Age of crime writing – and deserves to be much better known. 'She is still an unknown quantity to lots of people,' McDermid tells me. 'People who haven't read her are missing out on some really good storytelling and on reading someone with a really incisive way of writing about character. She gets under the skin of her characters and writes about them vividly and also with humour, which was something that a lot of Golden Age writers didn't have.' Tey died of liver cancer aged 55 on 13 February 1952, leaving The Singing Sands to be published posthumously. The Times records the death of Gordon Daviot two days before the state funeral of George VI, whose life, death and majesty had filled the newspapers that week. She left most of her estate of £24,000 to the English National Trust – to spite her native Scotland, says McDermid. 'When she was starting out, the literary establishment in Scotland was very male and she was not made welcome. She felt that exclusion quite keenly. She wanted to leave her estate to further the beauty of the landscape she loved. And she was pissed off with Scotland.' Tey's life has remained as mysterious as her fiction. The author Nicola Upson abandoned an attempt to write a biography because she couldn't find out enough about her life. Instead, Upson started writing a series of detective novels featuring a protagonist called Josephine Tey, who has a female partner. 'From the letters I've read, her most important relationships were with women,' Upson has said, by way of justification. Even John Gielgud, a close friend, didn't really know Tey. In an introduction to her 1953 collection of her plays he wrote, 'We were friends until her death last year – 1952 – and yet I cannot claim ever to have known her very intimately… She never spoke to me of her youth and her ambitions. It was hard to draw her out. It was difficult to tell what she really felt, since she did not readily give her confidence, even to her few intimate friends.' The Daughter of Time runs at Charing Cross Theatre from July 18 to September 13. The five best Josephine Tey novels – ranked 5. The Man in the Queue (1929) Tey introduces Inspector Grant in what is probably her most straightforward example of the whodunnit genre. This stands out among her crime writing contemporaries for the quality of its prose. Buy the book 4. To Love and Be Wise (1950) Tey sends Grant to a remote English village to investigate the disappearance of a Hollywood photographer, setting up a cleverly constructed narrative that explores questions of sexuality and gender identity in ways that were unique at the time. Buy the book 3. The Daughter of Time (1951) Widely perceived as her masterpiece, this is a must-read for any budding historians. Tey uses an ingenious device – getting her detective, Grant, to investigate a case from centuries ago – but the result is somewhat over-expository. Buy the book 2. Brat Farrar (1949) One for horse lovers, this is based, in part, on the real-life Tichborne case, which saw an imposter pose as a missing heir. In Tey's version, a young man is persuaded into impersonating a missing twin in an upper-class family in order to inherit the estate. Combines humour, melodrama and a cracking narrative. Buy the book 1. The Singing Sands (1952) Published posthumously, this is Tey at her crisp, wry best. Inspector Grant is suffering from burnout, so she sends him to the Scottish Highlands for some rest and recuperation, but after a dead body is discovered on the sleeper train, he winds up working. Tey has fun mocking Scottish nationalists. Buy the book
BBC News
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Agatha Christie - Queen of Crime exhibition coming to East Sussex
An Agatha Christie exhibition is set to open in East Sussex. The display, by Gale Goddard, explores the life and legacy of the English author, known for her detective novels and short stories. Titled Agatha Christie – The Queen of Crime, it is set to open on Saturday at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. Exhibits include displays such as Poirot's dinner setting on the Orient Express, Christie's 1926 disappearance, and Egyptian artefacts linking to Death on the Nile. Original items, books, and objects will also be shown. "Agatha Christie is one of the world's most loved crime writers," said Julia Hilton, leader of Hastings Borough Council, adding that lots of people will be excited to see the display. She said there were suggestions that Christie visited the area, with Hastings and St Leonards referenced in a couple of her books. The exhibition - which is free to enter - is planned to run until 10 August.
