Editing Josephine Tey

{{Short description|Scottish author (1896–1952)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2013}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Elizabeth MacKintosh
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| image = Josephine Tey portrait.jpg
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| pseudonym = Josephine Tey,<br />Gordon Daviot
| birth_name = Elizabeth MacKintosh
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|7|25|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Inverness]], Scotland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1952|2|13|1896|7|25|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[London]], England
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| nationality = Scottish
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| education = Inverness Royal Academy,<br />Anstey Physical Training College
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'''Elizabeth MacKintosh''' (25 July 1896 – 13 February 1952), known by the [[pen name]] '''Josephine Tey''', was a Scottish author. Her 1951 novel ''[[The Daughter of Time]]'', a detective work investigating the death of the [[Princes in the Tower]], was chosen by the [[Crime Writers' Association]] in 1990 as the greatest crime novel of all time.<ref name=LTlist/> Her first play ''[[Richard of Bordeaux]]'', written under another [[pseudonym]], '''Gordon Daviot''', starred [[John Gielgud]] in its successful West End run.

== 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.

== Death ==
Tey was intensely private, shunning all publicity throughout her life.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/31/robert-mccrum-elizabeth-mackintosh-mystery|title=Elizabeth Mackintosh: woman of mystery who deserves to be rediscovered|last=McCrum|first=Robert|authorlink=Robert McCrum|date=30 July 2011|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=17 October 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref>  During her last year, when she knew that she was terminally ill, she resolutely avoided all her friends as well. Her ultimate work, ''The Privateer'' (1952), was a romantic novel based on the life of the privateer [[Henry Morgan]]. She died of [[liver cancer]] at her sister Mary's home in London on 13 February 1952.<ref name=":0" />  Most of her friends, including Gielgud, were unaware that she was even ill.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Ewan |editor1-first=Elizabeth |title=The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004 |date=2006 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9780748626601 |page=233|display-editors=etal}}</ref> Her obituary in ''The Times'' appeared under her real name: "Miss E. Mackintosh Author of 'Richard of Bordeaux'".<ref name="Times"/>

Proceeds from Tey's estate, including royalties from her books, were assigned to the [[National Trust]].<ref name=":0" />

== Reception and legacy ==
In 1990, ''The Daughter of Time'' was selected by the [[Crime Writers' Association]] as the [[The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time|greatest crime novel of all time]]; ''The Franchise Affair'' was 11th on the same list of 100 books.<ref name=LTlist>{{cite web |title=Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time - UK Crime Writers' Association |url=https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Top+100+Crime+Novels+of+All+Time+-+UK+Crime+Writers%27+Association |website=Library Thing |access-date=6 November 2023}}</ref>

In 2015, [[Val McDermid]] argued that Tey "cracked open the door" for later writers such as [[Patricia Highsmith]] and [[Ruth Rendell]] to explore the darker side of humanity, creating a bridge between the [[Golden Age of Detective Fiction]] and contemporary crime novels, because "Tey opened up the possibility of unconventional secrets. Homosexual desire, cross-dressing, sexual perversion – they were all hinted at, glimpsed in the shadows as a door closed or a curtain twitched. Tey was never vulgar nor titillating.... Nevertheless, her world revealed a different set of psychological motivations."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/val-mcdermid-the-brillliant-unconventional-crime-novels-of-josephine-tey/|title=Val McDermid: the brillliant unconventional crime novels of Josephine Tey|last=McDermid|first=Val|date=16 July 2015|work=The Telegraph|access-date=18 February 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref> In 2019, Evie Jeffrey discussed Tey's engagement with capital punishment debates in ''[[A Shilling for Candles]]'' and ''To Love and Be Wise''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jeffrey |first1=Evie |title=Capital Punishment and Women in the British Police Procedural: Josephine Tey's ''A Shilling for Candles'' and ''[[To Love and Be Wise]]'' |journal=Clues: A Journal of Detection |date=2019 |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=40–50}}</ref>

== Publications ==

=== Novels ===
==== [[Inspector Alan Grant]] novels ====
All as Josephine Tey except where specified
{{anchor|The Singing Sands}}
# ''[[The Man in the Queue]]'' (also published as ''Killer in the Crowd'') (1929) [as Gordon Daviot]. Serialised, ''[[Dundee Evening Telegraph]]'', 12 August to 24 September 1930.<ref>"About the Author" in Tey, Josephine, ''The Man in the Queue''. [[Simon & Schuster#Imprints|Scribner Paperback Fiction]], 1995, p. 255.</ref>
# ''[[A Shilling for Candles]]'' (1936)<ref name="dot">"About the Author" in Tey, Josephine, ''The Daughter of Time''. [[Simon & Schuster#Imprints|Touchstone]], 1995, pp. 207.</ref> (the basis of [[Alfred Hitchcock|Hitchcock]]'s 1937 film ''[[Young and Innocent (film)|Young and Innocent]]'')
# ''[[The Franchise Affair (novel)|The Franchise Affair]]'' (1948) [Inspector Grant appears briefly at the beginning, mentioned a few times] ([[The Franchise Affair (film)|filmed in 1950]] starring [[Michael Denison]] and [[Dulcie Gray]])
# ''[[To Love and Be Wise]]'' (1950)
# ''[[The Daughter of Time]]'' (1951) 
# ''[[The Singing Sands (novel)|The Singing Sands]]'' (1952)

==== Stand-alone mysteries ====
All as Josephine Tey. These novels are set in the same fictional 20th-century Britain as the Inspector Grant novels.
* ''Miss Pym Disposes'' (1946)<ref name="dot" />
* ''[[Brat Farrar]]'' (or ''Come and Kill Me'') (1949) (the basis, without on-screen credit, for the 1963 [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer]] production ''[[Paranoiac (film)|Paranoiac]]'')

==== Other novels ====
All as Gordon Daviot
* ''Kif: An Unvarnished History'' (1929) - story of a boy who cares for horses and goes through WW1.
* ''The Expensive Halo: A Fable without Moral'' (1931) - about two pairs of brothers and sisters, one aristocratic, the other working class.
* ''The Privateer'' (1952) - a fictionalized reconstruction of the life of the privateer Henry Morgan.

=== Biography ===
* ''Claverhouse'' (1937) [as Gordon Daviot] (a life of the 17th-century cavalry leader [[John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee|John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee]])

=== Stage plays ===
All as Gordon Daviot except where specified
* ''[[Richard of Bordeaux]]'' (First performed, Arts Theatre Club, London, 1932)<ref name="dot" />
* ''[[The Laughing Woman (play)|The Laughing Woman]]'' (New Theatre, London, 1934)
* ''Queen of Scots'' (New Theatre, Aberdeen, 1934)
* ''The Stars Bow Down'' (Published, 1939; first performed, Chatham House School, 1949)
* ''Kirk o'Field'' (First performed, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 1940)
* ''Cornelia'' (First performed, Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, 1946) [as F. Craigie Howe].<ref>Henderson, pp. 240-46.</ref> Revived, 1963, as by Gordon Daviot<ref>The Stage, 25 April 1963, p. 14</ref>
* ''The Little Dry Thorn'' (First performed, Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, 1946)
* ''Leith Sands'' (Published, 1946: No stage performance yet traced)
* ''Rahab'' (Published, 1946. First performed, Scottish Community Drama Association, 1947)
* ''The Mother of Masé'' (Published, 1946: No stage performance yet traced)
* ''Sara'' (Published, 1946: No stage performance yet traced)
* ''Mrs Fry has a Visitor'' (Published, 1946: No stage performance yet traced)
* ''Three Mrs Madderleys'' (Published, 1946: No stage performance yet traced)
* ''Clarion Call'' (Published, 1946. First performed, Rugeley Town Hall, 31 July 1947)
* ''Remember Cæsar'' (Published, 1946: No stage performance yet traced)
* ''Valerius'' (First performed, Saville Theatre, London, 1948)
* ''Barnharrow'' (First performed, Stirling Dramatic Club, 1949,<ref>The Scotsman, 8 February 1949</ref> One-act)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Daviot |first1=Gordon |title=Barnharrow |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20150569 |website=The Faded Page |publisher=Peter Davies |access-date=17 March 2020}}</ref>
* ''The Balwhinnie Bomb'' (1949)
* ''Dickon'' (First performed, Salisbury Playhouse, 1955) - a sympathetic portrayal of Richard III

=== Radio plays ===
All as Gordon Daviot
* ''The Laughing Woman'' (Short version). BBC Home Service, 1 December 1940
* ''Leith Sands''. BBC Home Service, 13 December 1941
* ''Queen of Scots'' (Adapted by the author). BBC Home Service, 6 December 1942
* ''The Three Mrs Madderleys''. BBC Home Service, 14 June 1944
* ''Mrs Fry Has a Visitor''. BBC Home Service, 6 December 1944
* ''Three Women''. (Three playlets). BBC Home Service, 10 June 1945
* ''Remember Caesar''. BBC Home Service, 4 January 1946
* ''The Stars Bow Down''. BBC Home Service, 13 November 1948
* ''The Pen of My Aunt''. BBC Home Service, 15 February 1950
* ''The Pomp of Mrs Pomfret''. BBC Home Service, 23 October 1954

=== Television plays ===
All as Gordon Daviot
* ''Sweet Coz''. BBC Television, 4 January 1955
* ''Lady Charing Is Cross''. BBC Television, 8 January 1955
* ''The Staff Room''. BBC Television, 1 May 1956
* ''Barnharrow''. BBC Television, 1 May 1956

=== Short stories ===
All as Gordon Daviot
* ''Pat at Seven''. Westminster Gazette, 24 July 1926 
* ''Janet''. Westminster Gazette, 2 October 1926 
* ''Atalanta''. Westminster Gazette, 9 March 1927
* ''Pat Wears His Second Best Kilt''. Westminster Gazette, 17 December 1927

=== Poems ===
All as Gordon Daviot
* ''A Song of Racing''. Westminster Gazette, 16 April 1927
* ''Exile''. Westminster Gazette, 7 May 1927
* ''Deadlock''. Westminster Gazette, 21 May 1927
* ''A Song of Stations''. Westminster Gazette, 4 June 1927
* ''Roads''. Westminster Gazette, 20 August 1927
* ''In Memoriam HPFM''. Westminster Gazette, 10 September 1927
* ''Dyspepsia''. Westminster Gazette, 15 October 1927
* ''Reasons''. Westminster Gazette, 24 December 1927
* ''When I Am Old''. Westminster Gazette, 7 January 1928

=== Short non-fiction ===
All as Gordon Daviot
* ''Tossing the Caber''. Westminster Gazette, 10 September 1927

== Radio and television dramatisations ==
* ''The Man in the Queue'': broadcast in 1955, adapted by H.B. Fortuin
* ''A Shilling For Candles'': broadcast in 1954, 1963 and 1969, adapted by Rex Rienits; in 1998, adapted by John Fletcher
* ''Miss Pym Disposes'': broadcast in 1952, adapted by Jonquil Antony; and 1987, adapted by Elizabeth Proud
* ''The Franchise Affair'': broadcast in 1952, 1970 and 2005
* ''The Franchise Affair'': televised in 1958 (Robert Hall), serials 1962 (Constance Cox) and 1988 (James Andrew Hall)
* ''Brat Farrar'': broadcast in 1954, 1959 and 1980 (all adapted by Cyril Wentzel)
* ''Brat Farrar'': televised in 1986, adapted by James Andrew Hall
* ''The Daughter of Time'': broadcast in 1952 (scriptwriter not credited) and 1982 (Neville Teller)
* ''The Singing Sands'': broadcast in 1956 (Bertram Parnaby); televised in 1969 ([[James MacTaggart]])

== References ==
<references />

== External links ==
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/josephine-tey}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Mackintosh, Elizabeth|name=Elizabeth Mackintosh|author=yes}}
* {{OL author|2625174A}}
* Author [[Dana Stabenow]]'s homage to Josephine Tey's ''The Daughter of Time'' — [https://blog.stabenow.com/2022/02/18/josephine-tey/#more-87 How My Mother and Josephine Tey Led Me into a Life of Crime]
* {{IMDb name|0856758}}
* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/josephine-tey/ Photo of Tey]
* [http://www.josephinetey.net/ Josephine Tey – A Very Private Person]
* [http://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2016/07-08/elusive-miss-mackintosh/ "The Elusive Miss MacKintosh"] — review in ''[[Quadrant (magazine)|Quadrant]]''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tey, Josephine}}
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Inverness Royal Academy]]
[[Category:People from Inverness]]
[[Category:Scottish crime fiction writers]]
[[Category:Scottish mystery writers]]
[[Category:British women mystery writers]]
[[Category:Scottish women novelists]]
[[Category:Scottish women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Scottish novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish biographers]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish novelists]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:British women biographers]]
[[Category:Deaths from liver cancer in England]]
[[Category:20th-century Scottish women]]
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses]]
[[Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction]]