Gladys Mitchell was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 best known for her creation of Mrs. Bradley, the heroine of numerous detective novels

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie. Feted during her life (called "the Great Gladys" by Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...

), her work was largely neglected for the two decades after her death.

Life

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell was born in Cowley, Oxford

Cowley, Oxford

Cowley in Oxford, England, is a residential and industrial area that forms a small conurbation within greater Oxford. Cowley's neighbours are central Oxford to the northwest, Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys to the south, New Headington to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across...

 on 19 April 1901 to James, a market gardener of Scottish parentage, and Annie. She was educated at Rothschild School, Brentford and Green School, Isleworth. From 1919 to 1921 she attended Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths College

Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...

 and University College, London.

Upon her graduation Mitchell became a teacher of history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, English

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 and games

Physical education

Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....

 at St Paul's School, Brentford until 1925. She then taught at St Anne's Senior Girls School, Ealing until 1939. In 1926 she obtained an external diploma in European History from University College in 1926 and she then began to write novels while continuing to teach. In 1941 she joined Brentford Senior Girls School where she stayed until 1950. After a three year break from teaching she took a job at Matthew Arnold School, Staines, where she taught English and history, coached hurdling and wrote the annual school play until her retirement to Corfe Mullen

Corfe Mullen

Corfe Mullen is a village in Dorset, England, on the north-western urban fringe of the South East Dorset conurbation and is part of the rural district of East Dorset. The population is 10,147 ....

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

 in 1961. She continued to write until her death aged 82 on 27 July 1983.

She was a member of the Middlesex Education Association, the British Olympic Association

British Olympic Association

The British Olympic Association is the national Olympic committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1905 in the House of Commons, and at that time consisted of seven national governing body members from the following sports: fencing, life-saving, cycling, skating, rowing,...

, the Crime Writers' Association

Crime Writers' Association

The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....

, PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

 and the Society of Authors

Society of Authors

The Society of Authors is a trade union for professional writers that was founded in 1884 to protect the rights of writers and fight to retain those rights .It has counted amongst its members and presidents numerous notable writers and poets including Tennyson The Society of Authors (UK) is a...

. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

 and her interest in witchcraft

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

 was encouraged by her friend the detective novelist Helen Simpson

Helen de Guerry Simpson

Helen de Guerry Simpson was an Australian novelist.-Life and career:Simpson was born in Sydney into a family that had been settled in New South Wales for over 100 years...

. Mitchell never married.

Work

Mitchell wrote at least one novel a year throughout her career. Her first novel (Speedy Death, 1929) introduced Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley

Mrs Bradley

Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley is a fictional detective created by Gladys Mitchell. Mrs Bradley is Mitchell's most significant and long-lived character, appearing in 66 novels that were published between 1929 and 1975....

, a polymathic psychoanalyst and author who was featured in a further 65 novels. Her strong views on social and philosophical issues reflected those of her author and her assistant, Laura Menzies;they appear to have been something of a self-portrait of the young Mitchell.

Mitchell was an early member of the Detection Club

Detection Club

The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Freeman Wills Crofts, Arthur Morrison, John Rhode, Jessie Rickard, Baroness Emma Orczy, R. Austin Freeman, G.D.H. Cole, Margaret Cole, E.C. Bentley, and H.C. Bailey. Anthony...

 along with G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

, Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

 and Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...

 and throughout the 1930s was considered to be one of the "Big Three women detective writers", but she often challenged and mocked the conventions of the genre - notably in her earliest books, such as the first novel Speedy Death, where there is a particularly surprising twist to the plot, or her parodies of Christie in The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (1929) and The Saltmarsh Murders (1932). Her plots and settings were unconventional with Freudian psychology, witchcraft (notably in The Devil at Saxon Wall [1935] and The Worsted Viper [1943]) and the supernatural (naiads and Nessie, ghosts and Greek gods) as recurrent themes.

In addition to her 66 Mrs. Bradley novels Mitchell also used the pseudonyms of Stephen Hockaby (for a series of historical novels) and Malcolm Torrie (for a series of detective stories featuring an architect named Timothy Herring) and wrote ten children's books under her own name.

After her death Mitchell's work was neglected although three posthumously published novels sold well in the 1980s. Radio adaptations were made of Speedy Death (6 October 1990) and The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop (11 & 18 December 1991) both with Mary Wimbush

Mary Wimbush

Mary Wimbush was an English actress, whose career spanned sixty years from the 1940s to the 2000s...

 as Mrs Bradley and broadcast on radio 4. A BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television series, The Mrs Bradley Mysteries

The Mrs Bradley Mysteries

The Mrs Bradley Mysteries is a British television drama series, produced in-house by the BBC for broadcast on the BBC One channel, based on the character created by detective writer Gladys Mitchell...

(starring Diana Rigg

Diana Rigg

Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....

) was produced in 1999; however, the characteristic cackle and crocodilian looks were absent, and the plots and characters were changed. Several of her books were published in large print editions in the mid 1980s by publishers with no remainder

Remaindered book

Remaindered books are books that are no longer selling well and whose remaining unsold copies are being liquidated by the publisher at greatly reduced prices...

 policy so slow sales kept those titles in print for almost two decades. By the mid 1990s, only one of her novels was in regular print: a paperback edition of The Rising of the Moon (1945). Something of a renaissance began in 2005 with the publication of a collection of hitherto unpublished short stories, Sleuth's Alchemy, by Crippen and Landru. In the same year Minnow Press published a new edition of her rare 1940 novel Brazen Tongue and Rue Morgue published new editions of Death at the Opera (1934) and When Last I Died (1941). Minnow Press have continued their Mrs Bradley Collectors' Series with the reissue of the scarce 1939 title Printer’s Error in 2007, The Worsted Viper in 2009, and Hangman’s Curfew due in 2010.

Although critical opinion is divided on her best work, a good opinion of her strengths and style can be obtained from the following books: The Saltmarsh Murders, Death at the Opera (1934), The Devil at Saxon Wall (1935), Come Away, Death (1937), Brazen Tongue (1940), When Last I Died (1941), The Rising of the Moon (1945), Death and the Maiden (1947), The Dancing Druids (1948), Tom Brown's Body (1949), Groaning Spinney (1950), The Echoing Strangers (1952), Merlin's Furlong (1953), Dance to Your Daddy (1969), Nest of Vipers (1979) and The Greenstone Griffins (1983).
The Gladys Mitchell Tribute Site has reviews of almost all the books in its Bibliography section.

as Gladys Mitchell

• Speedy Death, (London: Gollancz
  Victor Gollancz Ltd
  Victor Gollancz Ltd was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz and specialised in the publication of high quality literature, nonfiction and popular fiction, including science fiction. Upon Gollancz's death in 1967, ownership...
  
  , 1929)
• The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop, (London: Gollancz, 1929)
• The Longer Bodies, (London: Gollancz, 1930)
• The Saltmarsh Murders, (London: Gollancz, 1932)
• Death at the Opera, (London: Grayson
  Grayson
  - Surname :* Alan Grayson , former Congressman from Florida's 8th congressional district* Andrew Jackson Grayson , American ornithologist and artist* Bette Grayson , American actress...
  
  , 1934)
• Death at Saxon Wall, (London: Grayson, 1935)
• Dead Men's Morris, (London: Michael Joseph, 1936)
• Come Away Death, (London: Michael Joseph, 1937)
• St Peter's Finger, (London: Michael Joseph, 1938)
• Printer's Error, (London: Michael Joseph, 1939)
• Brazen Tongue, (London: Michael Joseph, 1940)
• Hangman's Curfew, (London: Michael Joseph, 1941)
• When Last I Died, (London: Michael Joseph, 1941)
• Laurels Are Poison, (London: Michael Joseph, 1942)
• The Worsted Viper, (London: Michael Joseph, 1943)
• Sunset Over Soho, (London: Michael Joseph, 1943)
• My Father Sleeps, (London: Michael Joseph, 1944)
• The Rising of the Moon, (London: Michael Joseph, 1945)
• Here Comes a Chopper, (London: Michael Joseph, 1946)
• Death and the Maiden, (London: Michael Joseph, 1947)
• The Dancing Druids, (London: Michael Joseph, 1948)
• Tom Brown's Body, (London: Michael Joseph, 1949)
• Groaning Spinney, (London: Michael Joseph, 1950)
• The Devil's Elbow, (London: Michael Joseph, 1951)
• The Echoing Strangers, (London: Michael Joseph, 1952)
• Merlin's Furlong, (London: Michael Joseph, 1953)
• Faintley Speaking, (London: Michael Joseph, 1954)
• Watson's Choice, (London: Michael Joseph, 1955)
• Twelve Horses and the Hangman's Noose, (London: Michael Joseph, 1956)
• The Twenty-third Man, (London: Michael Joseph, 1957)
• Spotted Hemlock, (London: Michael Joseph, 1958)
• The Man Who Grew Tomatoes, (London: Michael Joseph, 1959)
• Say It With Flowers, (London: Michael Joseph, 1960)
• The Nodding Canaries, (London: Michael Joseph, 1961)
• My Bones Will Keep, (London: Michael Joseph, 1962)
• Adders on the Heath, (London: Michael Joseph, 1963)
• Death of a Delft Blue, (London: Michael Joseph, 1964)
• Pageant of Murder, (London: Michael Joseph, 1965)
• The Croaking Raven, (London: Michael Joseph, 1966)
• Skeleton Island, (London: Michael Joseph, 1967)
• Three Quick and Five Dead, (London: Michael Joseph, 1968)
• Dance to Your Daddy, (London: Michael Joseph, 1969)
• Gory Dew, (London: Michael Joseph, 1970)
• Lament for Leto, (London: Michael Joseph, 1971)
• A Hearse on May-Day, (London: Michael Joseph, 1972)
• The Murder of Busy Lizzie, (London: Michael Joseph, 1973)
• A Javelin for Jonah, (London: Michael Joseph, 1974)
• Winking at the Brim, (London: Michael Joseph, 1974)
• Convent on Styx, (London: Michael Joseph, 1975)
• Late, Late in the Evening, (London: Michael Joseph, 1976)
• Noonday and Night, (London: Michael Joseph, 1977)
• Fault in the Structure, (London: Michael Joseph, 1977)
• Wraiths and Changelings, (London: Michael Joseph, 1978)
• Mingled with Venom, (London: Michael Joseph, 1978)
• Nest of Vipers, (London: Michael Joseph, 1979)
• The Mudflats of the Dead, (London: Michael Joseph, 1979)
• Uncoffin'd Clay, (London: Michael Joseph, 1980)
• The Whispering Knights, (London: Michael Joseph, 1980)
• The Death-Cap Dancers, (London: Michael Joseph, 1981)
• Lovers, Make Moan, (London: Michael Joseph, 1981)
• Here Lies Gloria Mundy, (London: Michael Joseph, 1982)
• The Death of a Burrowing Mole, (London: Michael Joseph, 1982)
• The Greenstone Griffins, (London: Michael Joseph, 1983)
• Cold, Lone and Still, (London: Michael Joseph, 1983)
• No Winding-Sheet, (London: Michael Joseph, 1984)
• The Crozier Pharaohs, (London: Michael Joseph, 1984)

as Malcolm Torrie

• Heavy as Lead, (London: Michael Joseph, 1966)
• Late and Cold, (London: Michael Joseph, 1967)
• Your Secret Friend, (London: Michael Joseph, 1968)
• Churchyard Salad, (London: Michael Joseph, 1969)
• Shades of Darkness, (London: Michael Joseph, 1970)
• Bismarck Herrings, (London: Michael Joseph, 1971)