Editing Josephine Tey (section)

== Life and work ==
MacKintosh was born in [[Inverness]], the oldest of three daughters of Colin MacKintosh, a fruiterer, and Josephine (''née'' Horne). She attended [[Inverness Royal Academy]] and then, in 1914, [[Anstey College of Physical Education|Anstey Physical Training College]] in [[Erdington]], a suburb of [[Birmingham]].<ref name="Times">{{cite news |last1=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |title=Miss E. Mackintosh Author of "Richard of Bordeaux"|work=[[The Times]] |issue=52236 |date=15 February 1952|page=8}}</ref> She taught physical training at various schools in England and Scotland and during her vacations worked at a convalescent home in Inverness as a [[Voluntary Aid Detachment]] nurse. A youthful romance ended with her soldier friend's death in the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]] battles.<ref>Fraser, Antonia Introduction p.vii 2001 Folio Society edition ''The Franchise Affair''</ref> In 1923, she returned to Inverness permanently to care for her invalid mother, and stayed after her mother's death that year to keep house for her father.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Henderson|first1=Jennifer Morag|title=A Life: Josephine Tey|date=2015|publisher=Sandstone|location=Dingwall|isbn=978-1-910985-37-3|pages=91–93}}</ref>

The curriculum for "physical training" included much more than athletics. Tey used her school experience in ''Miss Pym Disposes'' when describing the subjects taught at the school, and the types of bruises and other injuries sustained by the pupils. When she graduated, Tey worked in a physiotherapy clinic in [[Leeds]], then taught in schools, first in [[Nottinghamshire]], then in [[Oban]], where she was injured when a boom in the gymnasium fell on her face. Tey repurposed this incident as a method of murder in ''Miss Pym Disposes''.

While caring for her father she began her career as a writer.<ref name="Butler">Butler, Pamela J. [http://www.r3.org/fiction/mysteries/tey_butler.html "The Mystery of Josephine Tey"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415014029/http://www.r3.org/fiction/mysteries/tey_butler.html|date=15 April 2011}}, Richard III Society, American Branch</ref> Her first published work was in ''[[The Westminster Gazette]]'' in 1925, under the name Gordon Daviot. She continued publishing verse and short stories in ''[[The Westminster Review]]'', ''[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Glasgow Herald]]'' and the ''[[Literary Review]]''.

Her first novel, ''Kif: An Unvarnished History'', was well received at the time with good reviews, a sale to America, and a mention in ''[[The Observer]]''{{'}}s list of Books of the Week. This work, inspired by a detachment of the [[Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders#First World War|4th Cameron Highlanders]], a Scottish [[Military reserve force|Territorial]] battalion stationed at Inverness before the [[World War I|First World War]] and prominent in the city's affairs, was an early indication of Tey's lasting interest in military matters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Henderson |first1=Jennifer Morag |title=Josephine Tey : a Life. |date=2016 |publisher=Sandstone Press Ltd |location=Dingwall, Scotland |isbn=9781910124710 |chapter=War, and First Year at Anstey}}</ref> Three months later, her first mystery novel, ''[[The Man in the Queue]]'', was published by Benn, Methuen. It was awarded the [[E. P. Dutton|Dutton Mystery Prize]] when published in America. This is the first appearance of her detective, [[Inspector Alan Grant]]. It would be some years before she wrote another mystery.

MacKintosh's real ambition had been to write a play which would receive a run in London's [[West End theatre|West End]]. Her play about King [[Richard II of England|Richard II]], ''[[Richard of Bordeaux (play)|Richard of Bordeaux]]'',  was produced in 1932 at the [[Arts Theatre]], under the Daviot pseudonym. Its success was such that it transferred to the New Theatre (now the [[Noël Coward Theatre]]) in 1933, for a year-long run.<ref name="Times"/> The production made a household name of its young leading man and director, [[John Gielgud]] (who became MacKintosh's life-long friend).<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB|id=37714|title=MacKintosh, Elizabeth [pseuds. Josephine Tey, Gordon Daviot]}}</ref> (Tey writes of Inspector Alan Grant that "he had in his youth seen ''Richard of Bordeaux''; four times he had seen it".)<ref>Tey, Josephine. [[The Daughter of Time]]. Simon & Schuster, 1995, p. 47.</ref> She stated she was inspired by Gielgud's performance in ''[[Hamlet]]'' and by the [[Royal Tournament]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mann |first1=Jessica |author1-link=Jessica Mann |title=Deadlier than the male : why are respectable English women so good at murder? |date=1981 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=9780025794603 |chapter=Josephine Tey}}</ref> Two more of her plays were produced at the New Theatre, ''[[The Laughing Woman (play)|The Laughing Woman]]'' (1934) and ''Queen of Scots'' (1934, written in collaboration with Gielgud).<ref name=odnb/>

She wrote about a dozen one-act plays and another dozen full-length plays, many with biblical or historical themes, under the name of Gordon Daviot but none of these received notable success.<ref name="Times"/> How she chose the name of Gordon is unknown, but [[Daviot, Highland|Daviot]] was the name of a scenic locale near Inverness where she had spent many happy holidays with her family.<ref name="Butler" /> Only four of her plays were produced during her lifetime.

Her only non-fiction book, ''Claverhouse'', was written as a vindication of [[John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee]] (1648-1689), whom she regarded as a libelled hero: "It is strange that a man whose life was so simple in pattern and so forthright in spirit should have become a peg for every legend, bloody or brave, that belonged to his time."

MacKintosh's best-known books were written under the name of Josephine Tey, which was the name of her Suffolk great-great grandmother.

In five of the mystery novels, all of which except the first she wrote under the name of Tey, the hero is [[Scotland Yard]] [[Inspector Alan Grant]]. (Grant appears in a sixth, ''[[The Franchise Affair (novel)|The Franchise Affair]]'', as a minor character.) The best known of these is ''[[The Daughter of Time]]'', in which Grant, laid up in hospital, has friends research reference books and contemporary documents so that he can puzzle out the mystery of whether [[Richard III of England|King Richard III of England]] murdered his nephews, the [[Princes in the Tower]]. 

''The Franchise Affair'' also has an historical context: although set in the 1940s, it is based on the 18th-century case of [[Elizabeth Canning]]. ''The Daughter of Time'' was the last of Tey's books published during her lifetime. Her last work, a further crime novel, ''The Singing Sands'', was found in her papers and published posthumously.