British Women of Mystery: Three Novels Penned by Women of the Golden Age of Mysteries

by Dorothy Sayers, Elaine Hamilton, A. E. Fielding

Overview

Three Full Length Novels in One

- Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers
- The Westminster Mystery by Elaine Hamilton
- The Clifford Affair by A. E. Fielding

Prior to World War I, detective fiction in Britain was largely a male preserve, but in the period between the wars--an era that has been called the Golden Age of British Mysteries--women authors in Britain not only embraced the genre, but came to dominate it. Authors such as Sayers, Allingham, Marsh not to mention the great Agatha Christie topped the best sellers lists, but there were numerous other women writers working to satisfy the public's demand for mystery fiction. Unfortunately, many of these authors are virtually unknown today. This volume brings together the first mystery novel of one of the best known of these writers, Dorothy L. Sayers' Whose Body?, along with novels by two of the lesser known women of the period, Elaine Hamilton's The Westminster Mystery and A. E. Fielding's The Clifford Affair, in the hopes that it will serve as an introduction to the British Women of Mystery.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940157951580
Publisher:	Resurrected Press
Publication date:	11/21/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	574
File size:	743 KB

About the Author

- Dorothy L. Sayers (June 13, 1893-December 17, 1957) was a British writer, playwright, essayist and translator. She was one of the “big four” mystery writers during the “Golden Age” of British detective fiction, the period between the two world wars. Oxford educated, Sayers later worked in advertising working as the copywriter for campaigns for Coleman’s mustard and Guinness, before turning to detective fiction full time. Later in life she did a translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

- Not much is known about Elaine Hamilton other than the fact that she wrote a series of mysteries in the 1930's featuring Inspector Reynolds of Scotland Yard. The Westminster Mystery, published in 1930 was the first of these. Other titles in the series include Murder in the Fog (1931), The Green Death (1932), The Chelsea Mystery (1932), The Silent Bell (1933), Peril at Midnight (1934), Tragedy in the Dark (1935), The Casino Mystery (1936) and Murder Before Tuesday (1937).

-The identity of A. E. Fielding is as much a mystery as the plots of the novels. Two dozen novels were published from 1924 to 1944 as by Archibald Fielding, A. E. Fielding, or Archibald E. Fielding, yet the only clue as to the real author is a comment by the American publishers, H.C. Kinsey Co. that A. E. Fielding was in reality a “middle-aged English woman by the name of Dorothy Feilding whose peacetime address is Sheffield Terrace, Kensington, London, and who enjoys gardening.” Research on the part of John Herrington has uncovered a person by that name living at 2 Sheffield Terrace from 1932-1936. She appears to have moved to Islington in 1937 after which she disappears. To complicate things, some have attributed the authorship to Lady Dorothy Mary Evelyn Moore nee Feilding (1889-1935), however, a grandson of Lady Dorothy has denied any family knowledge of such authorship. The archivist at Collins, the British publisher, reports that any records of A. Fielding were presumably lost during WWII. Birthdates have been given variously as 1884, 1889, and 1900. Unless new information comes to light, it would appear that the real authorship must remain a mystery.