Gladys Mitchell (1901–1983)
Author of The Saltmarsh Murders
About the Author
Author Gladys Mitchell was born in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England on April 19, 1901. She was educated at Goldsmiths' College and University College, London. After graduating, she became a teacher and taught English, history, and games at numerous schools until her retirement in 1961. She is best show more known for her detective novels featuring Mrs. Bradley. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie. In 1976, she received the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger award. She died on July 27, 1983. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Gladys Mitchell
The Malory Secret 3 copies
Pam at Storne Castle 2 copies
Shallow Brown 1 copy
Gabriel's Hold 1 copy
The Three Fingerprints 1 copy
Death in the wet 1 copy
The Manuscript 1 copy
Marsh Hay 1 copy
Associated Works
The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries - Death at the Opera / The Rising of the Moon / Laurels Are Poison / The Worsted Viper (2003) — Original Novels — 10 copies
Great Mystery Series: Eight of the Best Mysteries by the Top Women Writers [audiobook] (2000) — Contributor — 3 copies
The Big Book for Girls — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Mitchell, Gladys Maude Winifred
- Other names
- Hockaby, Stephen
Torrie, Malcolm - Birthdate
- 1901-04-21
- Date of death
- 1983-07-27
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Goldsmiths College, University of London
Rothschild School, Brentford, England, UK
Green School, Isleworth, England, UK - Occupations
- teacher (of history ∙ English ∙ swimming and games)
novelist
mystery writer - Organizations
- Detection Club
P. E. N
British Olympic Association - Short biography
- Gladys Mitchell taught at a number of private (called public in England) schools until she retired in 1950. She returned to teaching in 1953 before retiring for good in 1961 at the age of 60, and no doubt this explains why she so often used schools in her books. She taught English, history and games. Her lifelong interest in athletics earned her membership in the British Olympic Association. Her first attempts at fiction in 1923 were rejected. In 1929, her first published novel, Speedy Death, introduced the character of Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, a psychoanalyst/author turned amateur sleuth who then appeared in a further 65 novels. Mitchell was an early member of the Detection Club along with G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers and in the 1930s was considered one of the "Big Three" British female detective writers. She also wrote a number of books under the pen names Malcolm Torrie and Stephen Hockaby. Born in the village of Cowley, Oxfordshire, April 19, 1901, she never married (any knowledge of romance and sex in her books was purely academic, she explained).
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Cowley, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Cowley, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Ealing, West London, Middlesex, England, UK
Brentford, Greater London, Middlesex, England, UK
Corfe Mullen, Dorset, England, UK - Place of death
- Corfe Mullen, Dorset, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
The Anti-Heroine Detective?
Review of the Thomas & Mercer Kindle eBook edition (March 4, 2014) of the original Gollancz (UK) hardcover (1929).
The cross-dressing in Speedy Death is not even the queerest thing about the book. Further details would get heavily into spoiler territory though. Suffice to say that Mitchell's description of her psychologist turned amateur investigator Mrs. Bradley are a complete antithesis to the standard attractive, elegant and genteel detectives of the Golden Age of Crime. She is first described as:
After that introduction, Mitchell doesn't miss any opportunity to further describe Mrs. Bradley as having grinned fiendishly, cackled and having a harsh cackle of eldritch laughter, and looking like some ghoulish bird of prey with claw-like hands and like an amused and mocking death’s-head with her reptilian smile. She is the smartest person in the room of course.
See cover at https://grandestgame.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/mitchell-speedy-death.jpg?w=465
The spine and front dustcover of the original hardcover edition of “Speedy Death” as published by Gollancz (UK) in 1929. Image sourced from Grandest Game Wordpress (linked below).
Although the culprit and the motive will likely be obvious to most readers quite early on, it seems to take the longest time for everyone else to get on the same page. By that time there are further murder attempts and yet another death. Finally someone is arrested, but then the twists become even more twisted. It will make you wonder whether it wasn't written as a parody of the crime fiction of Mitchell's contemporaries. But then she went on to write 64 more of them, so further development must have been along a more serious line, as 65 parodies would seem to be an unrealistic stretch for a series character.
I discovered the Mrs. Bradley Mysteries by Gladys Mitchell from reading Christopher Fowler's excellent The Book of Forgotten Authors (2017) which I recently reviewed and rated as Five Stars. Although Mitchell was a contemporary of such Golden Age of Crime Fiction authors such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, I had never heard of her previously and she is the first of the "Forgotten" that I chose to investigate. All 65 Mrs. Bradley mysteries have been republished in eBook & paperback by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint in the recent years 2013 to 2018.
Other Reviews
Speedy Death 1929 by Gladys Mitchell by George Simmers, Reading 1900-1950, September 15, 2015.
WARNING: This following link contains major plot spoilers, but it also includes interesting excerpts from contemporary reviews in 1929. Speedy Death (Gladys Mitchell) by Nicholas Fuller, Grandest Game Wordpress, December 5, 2021.
Trivia and Links
Speedy Death was adapted for television as the pilot episode of The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (1998-2000) starring Diana Rigg as Mrs. Bradley. I could not find a trailer or a posting of the episode (the entire series is available on Britbox in Canada) but there is a delightful homemade tribute edit which uses clips from the series at Get the Party Started: The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries. show less
Review of the Thomas & Mercer Kindle eBook edition (March 4, 2014) of the original Gollancz (UK) hardcover (1929).
"In your opinion, which is the most remarkable feature of the whole case?”show more
“Well, apart from the murder itself,” replied Carstairs slowly, and appearing to ruminate as he spoke, “I suppose the fact that Mountjoy turned out to be a woman is the queerest thing about it.”
“Yes, that was queer,” said Mrs. Bradley, in a curiously inconclusive
tone.
The cross-dressing in Speedy Death is not even the queerest thing about the book. Further details would get heavily into spoiler territory though. Suffice to say that Mitchell's description of her psychologist turned amateur investigator Mrs. Bradley are a complete antithesis to the standard attractive, elegant and genteel detectives of the Golden Age of Crime. She is first described as:
Mrs. Bradley was dry without being shrivelled, and bird-like without being pretty. She reminded Alastair Bing, who was afraid of her, of the reconstruction of a pterodactyl he had once seen in a German museum. There was the same inhuman malignity in her expression as in that of the defunct bird, and, like it, she had a cynical smirk about her mouth even when her face was in repose. She possessed nasty, dry, claw-like hands, and her arms, yellow and curiously repulsive, suggested the plucked wings of a fowl.
After that introduction, Mitchell doesn't miss any opportunity to further describe Mrs. Bradley as having grinned fiendishly, cackled and having a harsh cackle of eldritch laughter, and looking like some ghoulish bird of prey with claw-like hands and like an amused and mocking death’s-head with her reptilian smile. She is the smartest person in the room of course.
See cover at https://grandestgame.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/mitchell-speedy-death.jpg?w=465
The spine and front dustcover of the original hardcover edition of “Speedy Death” as published by Gollancz (UK) in 1929. Image sourced from Grandest Game Wordpress (linked below).
Although the culprit and the motive will likely be obvious to most readers quite early on, it seems to take the longest time for everyone else to get on the same page. By that time there are further murder attempts and yet another death. Finally someone is arrested, but then the twists become even more twisted. It will make you wonder whether it wasn't written as a parody of the crime fiction of Mitchell's contemporaries. But then she went on to write 64 more of them, so further development must have been along a more serious line, as 65 parodies would seem to be an unrealistic stretch for a series character.
I discovered the Mrs. Bradley Mysteries by Gladys Mitchell from reading Christopher Fowler's excellent The Book of Forgotten Authors (2017) which I recently reviewed and rated as Five Stars. Although Mitchell was a contemporary of such Golden Age of Crime Fiction authors such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, I had never heard of her previously and she is the first of the "Forgotten" that I chose to investigate. All 65 Mrs. Bradley mysteries have been republished in eBook & paperback by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint in the recent years 2013 to 2018.
Other Reviews
Speedy Death 1929 by Gladys Mitchell by George Simmers, Reading 1900-1950, September 15, 2015.
WARNING: This following link contains major plot spoilers, but it also includes interesting excerpts from contemporary reviews in 1929. Speedy Death (Gladys Mitchell) by Nicholas Fuller, Grandest Game Wordpress, December 5, 2021.
Trivia and Links
Speedy Death was adapted for television as the pilot episode of The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (1998-2000) starring Diana Rigg as Mrs. Bradley. I could not find a trailer or a posting of the episode (the entire series is available on Britbox in Canada) but there is a delightful homemade tribute edit which uses clips from the series at Get the Party Started: The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries. show less
Gladys Mitchell's novels seem to elicit hackneyed phrases. But what can you do when, for a change, they're actually true? It's become a commonplace to claim that you couldn't put a book down; however, in the case of When Last I Died, it's literally true! I stayed up until 3 a.m. to finish this Mrs. Bradley novel, which doesn't give away the murderer -- or even who the real murder victims are -- until the last few chapters. Forgive me for using yet another cliché, but When Last I Died really show more does keep you guessing until the very end. I never saw the resolution coming.
How can these novels be so neglected? Although popular in Miss Mitchell's lifetime, these novels featuring the sly, wizened, and intimidating Beatrice Lestrange Bradley aren't nearly as well known as the detective novels of Ngaio Marsh, Patricia Wentworth, or Dorothy L. Sayers, even though Miss Mitchell's novels surpass those of Marsh, Wentworth, and Sayers. Why Mrs. Bradley even gives Miss Marple a run for her money!
Miss Mitchell truly lives up to her billing by the English poet Philip Larkin as "the Great Gladys." This is the second novel Mrs. Bradley I've read; it was much better than the first, The Saltmarsh Murders, which itself was very good. Thankfully, Miss Mitchell was quite prolific, and she wrote more than 60 Mrs. Bradley novels -- enough to keep me happy for years! show less
How can these novels be so neglected? Although popular in Miss Mitchell's lifetime, these novels featuring the sly, wizened, and intimidating Beatrice Lestrange Bradley aren't nearly as well known as the detective novels of Ngaio Marsh, Patricia Wentworth, or Dorothy L. Sayers, even though Miss Mitchell's novels surpass those of Marsh, Wentworth, and Sayers. Why Mrs. Bradley even gives Miss Marple a run for her money!
Miss Mitchell truly lives up to her billing by the English poet Philip Larkin as "the Great Gladys." This is the second novel Mrs. Bradley I've read; it was much better than the first, The Saltmarsh Murders, which itself was very good. Thankfully, Miss Mitchell was quite prolific, and she wrote more than 60 Mrs. Bradley novels -- enough to keep me happy for years! show less
Mitchell was once considered one of the 'Big Three' British female crime writers, alongbwith Christie and Sayers. This is the first of her books I have read, and on this showing I have to say that I'm not really surprised that her work hasn't shown the longevity of the other two.
Whilst for the most part her characters and writing are perfectly fine there are holes that you could drive a bus through in the plotting department! Or at least there appear to be.
It's a little hard to tell because show more the delivery of the denoument through rambling dialogue over several drawn-out, yet incomplete, conversations fails to provide a clear explanation of the crimes.
There were whole tracts of writing during which I honestly had absolutely no idea what was supposed to be happening, or what was apparently being explained. When I did finally get a grip on the 'Who, Why & How' of the culmination there was still no satisfaction because the murders described seem to have no triggering event or pressing motive, and were so insanely complicated and implausible that even in the context of the already (very) relaxed standards of the genre they fail to offer the smallest shred of credibility.
In all honesty I was deeply disappointed. I have wanted to read these books for a long time. I have read everything by Sayers & Christie, and was looking forward to completing the triumvirate.
I have a couple more, and I shall persevere with them in the hope that this was just an unfortunate first-choice, but I'm a lot less enthusiastic about the prospect. show less
Whilst for the most part her characters and writing are perfectly fine there are holes that you could drive a bus through in the plotting department! Or at least there appear to be.
It's a little hard to tell because show more the delivery of the denoument through rambling dialogue over several drawn-out, yet incomplete, conversations fails to provide a clear explanation of the crimes.
There were whole tracts of writing during which I honestly had absolutely no idea what was supposed to be happening, or what was apparently being explained. When I did finally get a grip on the 'Who, Why & How' of the culmination there was still no satisfaction because the murders described seem to have no triggering event or pressing motive, and were so insanely complicated and implausible that even in the context of the already (very) relaxed standards of the genre they fail to offer the smallest shred of credibility.
In all honesty I was deeply disappointed. I have wanted to read these books for a long time. I have read everything by Sayers & Christie, and was looking forward to completing the triumvirate.
I have a couple more, and I shall persevere with them in the hope that this was just an unfortunate first-choice, but I'm a lot less enthusiastic about the prospect. show less
The mrs Bradley Mysteries
Good reviews on BookLikes me to try out Gladys Mitchell's rather unique take on the female upper-class sleuth. I'm one of those folks who feels obliged to start such things from the beginning, so I went in search of an audiobook version of the first book "Speedy Death".
I could only find a BBC dramatisation that presents "Speedy Death" and "The Mystery of the Butcher's Shop" in a condensed version that accords only ninety minutes to each.
"Speedy Death" is presented at show more pace worthy of the title. The overall feel is that of a pantomime intended for adult consumption. The cast is competent. The production standards are smooth but perhaps a bit too tongue-in-cheek. It seems to me that the dramatisation is cosy almost to the point of being self-mocking whereas the themes in the book : murder, extra-judicial execution, transgender living, lesbian attraction, abusive men and a self-possessed, manipulative older woman would have been quite shocking when the book was published in 1929. Gladys Mitchell seems to be playing Quentin Tarrantino to Agatha Christie's more conventional Cohen Brothers but the BBC have turned her efforts into something close to a farce.
"Speedy Death" is populated by damaged, privileged people who seem to have no understanding of just how broken they all are. Mrs Bradley, our heroine is a high-functioning sociopath, strong on insight and short on empathy, who stalks ruthlessly and gleefully through the pack of upper-class walking-wounded, mentally vivisecting them with accuracy and obvious, almost manic, pleasure.
I finished the dramatisation "Speedy Death" feeling that I'd been shown the pop-up book version of what might well be a fascinating novel.
Things got worse when I reached "The Mystery Of A Butcher's Shop". The main murder committed here seems to be by the BBC who effectively killed this novel by slap-dash attempts at humour and a script so clumsy as to be negligent. They added insult to injury by inflicting "Them Bones, Them Bones, Them Dry Bones" as a chorus sung at random intervals.
I suspect that this novel never had a particular strong constitution as it leans too heavily on the sensational supported by the improbable but the BBC have managed completely to drain it of any life it once had.
I'm interested in reading Gladys Mitchell but I'll stick to her text in future. show less
Good reviews on BookLikes me to try out Gladys Mitchell's rather unique take on the female upper-class sleuth. I'm one of those folks who feels obliged to start such things from the beginning, so I went in search of an audiobook version of the first book "Speedy Death".
I could only find a BBC dramatisation that presents "Speedy Death" and "The Mystery of the Butcher's Shop" in a condensed version that accords only ninety minutes to each.
"Speedy Death" is presented at show more pace worthy of the title. The overall feel is that of a pantomime intended for adult consumption. The cast is competent. The production standards are smooth but perhaps a bit too tongue-in-cheek. It seems to me that the dramatisation is cosy almost to the point of being self-mocking whereas the themes in the book : murder, extra-judicial execution, transgender living, lesbian attraction, abusive men and a self-possessed, manipulative older woman would have been quite shocking when the book was published in 1929. Gladys Mitchell seems to be playing Quentin Tarrantino to Agatha Christie's more conventional Cohen Brothers but the BBC have turned her efforts into something close to a farce.
"Speedy Death" is populated by damaged, privileged people who seem to have no understanding of just how broken they all are. Mrs Bradley, our heroine is a high-functioning sociopath, strong on insight and short on empathy, who stalks ruthlessly and gleefully through the pack of upper-class walking-wounded, mentally vivisecting them with accuracy and obvious, almost manic, pleasure.
I finished the dramatisation "Speedy Death" feeling that I'd been shown the pop-up book version of what might well be a fascinating novel.
Things got worse when I reached "The Mystery Of A Butcher's Shop". The main murder committed here seems to be by the BBC who effectively killed this novel by slap-dash attempts at humour and a script so clumsy as to be negligent. They added insult to injury by inflicting "Them Bones, Them Bones, Them Dry Bones" as a chorus sung at random intervals.
I suspect that this novel never had a particular strong constitution as it leans too heavily on the sensational supported by the improbable but the BBC have managed completely to drain it of any life it once had.
I'm interested in reading Gladys Mitchell but I'll stick to her text in future. show less
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 91
- Also by
- 23
- Members
- 5,138
- Popularity
- #4,850
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 122
- ISBNs
- 380
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 9
