Josephine Tey
With the discovery in a carpark of Rick the Third [I was tempted but this is a family blog], it’s obviously time to do a piece on Josephine Tey, is it not?
Who?
Well yes – Agatha and Naomi got the plaudits but this lady wrote every bit as well and even better in many ways. Her piece-de-resistance, the one she’s remembered for [by a dying breed] ws when her Inspector was laid up in hospital and someone brought to him the investigation of Rick the Third.
Alan Grant, Scotland Yard Inspector (a character who also appears in five other novels by the same author) is feeling bored while confined to bed in hospital with a broken leg. Marta Hallard, an actress friend of his, suggests that he should amuse himself by researching an historical mystery. She brings him some pictures of historical characters aware of Grant’s interest in human faces. He becomes intrigued by a portrait of King Richard III. He prides himself on being able to read a person’s character from his appearance, and King Richard seems to him a gentle and kind and wise man. Why is everyone so sure that he was a cruel murderer?
With the help of other friends and acquaintances, Grant investigates Richard’s life and the case of the Princes in the Tower, testing out his theories on the doctors and nurses who attend to him. Grant spends weeks pondering historical information and documents with the help of Brent Carradine, a likeable young American researcher for the British Museum. Using his detective’s logic, he comes to the conclusion that the claim of Richard being a murderer is a fabrication of Tudor propaganda, as is the popular image of the King as a monstrous hunchback.
It’s an excellent book and when you’re done with that, how about trying The Singing Sands (1952)?
Filed under: Biography & Obituary, Literature & performing arts
Knocks Agatha Christie into a cocked hat; as well as the ingenous plots, Tey’s effortless mastery of language leaves the reader in awe of her fearsome wit.
It’s a reminder of just how good British writing was before a combination of American influence and self-conscious intellectualism spoiled it all.
Tey’s detective novels are excellent examples but my favourites are those which break the mould; ‘Daughter of Time’, naturally, but also ‘Brat Farrar’ and ‘Miss Pym Disposes’, the latter an arch but beautifully constructed edifice of admirable subtlety that makes Christie look crude by comparison.
Bratt Farrar was quite revered.
Now don’t take this the wrong way and I’m in no way trying to compare but my own fiction writing goes far more heavily into characterization than on the mystery plot itself. The plot depends on the interactions between people.
I always wondered where I got the idea and it was from two places – Josephine Tey and the way she wrote … and to be fair, from Poirot. The current novel turns completely on the psychological ties between people.
In the top 100 crime novels of all time, of the British Crime Writer’s Association, Josephine Tey comes in first and eleventh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_100_Crime_Novels_of_All_Time
She is first for “The Daughter of Time” and eleventh for “The Franchise Affair”, which I remember as being brilliant.
There are many other excellent books and authors in the list.
Best regards
Franchise Affair was superb and was how I came into her literature.