Josephine Tey

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Josephine Tey (1896–1952), Scottish writer of mystery novels. Five feature Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant, the rest a variety of Amateur Sleuths.

Several of her novels have been adapted for film or television. A Shilling For Candles was adapted (very loosely) as the Alfred Hitchcock film Young and Innocent.

Probably her most widely known novel is The Daughter of Time, in which Inspector Grant, stuck in hospital with a broken leg, fends off boredom by re-investigating the historical case of the Princes in the Tower, concluding that Richard of Gloucester wasn't the one who done it.


Works written by Josephine Tey include:
Josephine Tey provides examples of the following tropes:

Astride the farther lion was a small boy clad in a leopard-skin rug with green baize edging, a seaside pail worn helmet-wise, and nothing else that was visible. A very long brass poker stood up lance-wise from its rest on his bare foot.
'It's all right,' Eleanor said. 'You did see it.'
'That comforts me quite a bit.'

It was a very good orphanage; a great deal happier than many a home he had seen in passing since. The children had loved it. They had wept when they left and had come back for visits; they had sent contributions to the funds; they had invited the staff to their marriages, and brought their subsequent children for the matron's approval. There was never a day when some old girl or boy was not cluttering up the front door.