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Josephine Tey 8 Books Collection; The Singing Sands / The Man in the Queue / Miss Pym Disposes / A Shilling for Candles / Brat Farrar / The Franchise Affair / The Daughter of Time / To Love and Be Wise
Josephine Tey collection 8 Books set (The Singing Sands / The Man in the Queue / Miss Pym Disposes / A Shilling for Candles / Brat Farrar / The Franchise Affair / The Daughter of Time / To Love and Be Wise)
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Published January 1, 2012
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About the author
Josephine Tey
142 books850 followersJosephine Tey was a pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh. Josephine was her mother's first name and Tey the surname of an English Grandmother. As Josephine Tey, she wrote six mystery novels featuring Scotland Yard's Inspector Alan Grant.
The first of these, The Man in the Queue (1929) was published under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot , whose name also appears on the title page of another of her 1929 novels, Kif; An Unvarnished History. She also used the Daviot by-line for a biography of the 17th century cavalry leader John Graham, which was entitled Claverhouse (1937).
Mackintosh also wrote plays (both one act and full length), some of which were produced during her lifetime, under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. The district of Daviot, near her home of Inverness in Scotland, was a location her family had vacationed. The name Gordon does not appear in either her family or her history.
Elizabeth Mackintosh came of age during World War I, attending Anstey Physical Training College in Birmingham, England during the years 1915 - 1918. Upon graduation, she became a physical training instructor for eight years. In 1926, her mother died and she returned home to Inverness to care for her invalid father. Busy with household duties, she turned to writing as a diversion, and was successful in creating a second career.
Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of her novels, A Shilling for Candles (1936) as Young and Innocent in 1937 and two other of her novels have been made into films, The Franchise Affair (1948), filmed in 1950, and 'Brat Farrar' (1949), filmed as Paranoiac in 1963. In addition, a number of her works have been dramatised for radio.
Her novel The Daughter of Time (1951) was voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990.
Miss Mackintosh never married, and died at the age of 55, in London. A shy woman, she is reported to have been somewhat of a mystery even to her intimate friends. While her death seems to have been a surprise, there is some indication she may have known she was fatally ill for some time prior to her passing.
The first of these, The Man in the Queue (1929) was published under the pseudonym of Gordon Daviot , whose name also appears on the title page of another of her 1929 novels, Kif; An Unvarnished History. She also used the Daviot by-line for a biography of the 17th century cavalry leader John Graham, which was entitled Claverhouse (1937).
Mackintosh also wrote plays (both one act and full length), some of which were produced during her lifetime, under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. The district of Daviot, near her home of Inverness in Scotland, was a location her family had vacationed. The name Gordon does not appear in either her family or her history.
Elizabeth Mackintosh came of age during World War I, attending Anstey Physical Training College in Birmingham, England during the years 1915 - 1918. Upon graduation, she became a physical training instructor for eight years. In 1926, her mother died and she returned home to Inverness to care for her invalid father. Busy with household duties, she turned to writing as a diversion, and was successful in creating a second career.
Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of her novels, A Shilling for Candles (1936) as Young and Innocent in 1937 and two other of her novels have been made into films, The Franchise Affair (1948), filmed in 1950, and 'Brat Farrar' (1949), filmed as Paranoiac in 1963. In addition, a number of her works have been dramatised for radio.
Her novel The Daughter of Time (1951) was voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990.
Miss Mackintosh never married, and died at the age of 55, in London. A shy woman, she is reported to have been somewhat of a mystery even to her intimate friends. While her death seems to have been a surprise, there is some indication she may have known she was fatally ill for some time prior to her passing.
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March 23, 2024Good, character-driven mysteries recommended by Tana French. The influence does make sense in a good way.
However, the books' "old fashioned" morals were irritating and distracting, even if they were extremely typical of the time period. There was racism, sexism, repetitive use of words like midget as nicknames and nicknames based on skin color, endorsement of violence against women (only when they're lying sluts tho!) and a truly repellant level of transphobia in To Love and Be Wise specifically. Of course, readers are also made to understand that the British police force is the greatest, most efficient means of justice in the world. Most maddeningly, almost every novel includes the crime solver's "proven" belief that you can read a person's true character in their physical characteristics. All people with a certain shade of blue eyes are sex fiends. All people with a certain type of eyebrow are noble. And so on and so on. It has a eugenics and phrenology flavor to it, which again is sadly common for the time period but no less repugnant for that.
So all in all, a very interesting period piece that really reflects the development of the modern "detective" novels (and even parts of the true crime genre), and very interesting to see the way an author like French has taken so much from these kinds of books but made them so much more modern (and palatable to a modern reader). The mysteries were mostly interesting and well-executed (I won't forgive the transphobia story tho) but again, it was often grating to be dealing with those other factors.
Brat Farrar was my favorite, I think.
However, the books' "old fashioned" morals were irritating and distracting, even if they were extremely typical of the time period. There was racism, sexism, repetitive use of words like midget as nicknames and nicknames based on skin color, endorsement of violence against women (only when they're lying sluts tho!) and a truly repellant level of transphobia in To Love and Be Wise specifically. Of course, readers are also made to understand that the British police force is the greatest, most efficient means of justice in the world. Most maddeningly, almost every novel includes the crime solver's "proven" belief that you can read a person's true character in their physical characteristics. All people with a certain shade of blue eyes are sex fiends. All people with a certain type of eyebrow are noble. And so on and so on. It has a eugenics and phrenology flavor to it, which again is sadly common for the time period but no less repugnant for that.
So all in all, a very interesting period piece that really reflects the development of the modern "detective" novels (and even parts of the true crime genre), and very interesting to see the way an author like French has taken so much from these kinds of books but made them so much more modern (and palatable to a modern reader). The mysteries were mostly interesting and well-executed (I won't forgive the transphobia story tho) but again, it was often grating to be dealing with those other factors.
Brat Farrar was my favorite, I think.
April 21, 2025
This is a great set of books by Josephine Tey. Most are Alan Grant novels, with a couple others thrown in. Great storytelling and compelling characters.
May 7, 2025
THE MAN IN THE QUEUE
A tightly packed but patient, orderly and well-entertained theatre queue is the scene of a puzzling murder. A man near the front of the queue, when it finally moves forward, simply sinks to the ground, killed by a stab wound inflicted some time before. He has a gun but no means of identification on him—not even any clothing labels—and no-one in the queue seems to know anything about him or to have any connection with him.
Josephine Tey weaves an enthralling story, full of suspense and intrigue, as Inspector Grant unravels the mystery. Inspector Grant is a thoughtful and methodical detective, and we are able to listen in as he turns over theory after theory in his mind. We are able to follow where his thoughts are leading him and why. Despite living on his own in lodgings, Inspector Grant is able, courtesy of a benefactor, to dine regularly at an expensive restaurant where he is a well-known and valued customer.
Grant has an assistant, Williams, and is able to call on others to help with surveillance and following up lines of inquiry. However, Grant works mainly on his own, returning to his station to receive reports from the errands on which he has sent out others. His one personal interest seems to be fishing. This enables him to pursue a suspect to a remote part of Scotland under pretence of doing some fishing—a ruse that he also used in The Singing Sands.
The author has quite an engaging style, with many memorable turns of phrase and striking descriptions. Thus, one witness has “boot-button brown eyes”, another “Struwwelpeter hair” and a third “the rubicund face of the man who drives mail coaches through the snow on Christmas cards”.
She does, however, indulge in a bête noir of mine: using little-known foreign words and expressions without explanation. She merely highlights them in italics, as if to say, “It’s foreign but you’ll understand if you have any sort of an education.” Her frequent biblical and classical references and sometimes over-worked language may also stump many a reader, however well educated.
Thus, within the first (very long) paragraph we have the last trump, Thespis and Terpsichore, separation of the sheep from the goats, the “mere contraction of [a] deltoid muscle” and foolish virgins. Very soon street entertainers are “thrusting limp but importunate headgear into the meagre interstices of the queue” and the customers finally approach the guichet (google it—I had to).
Having said that, the writer holds the reader in suspense throughout, as the various leads and suspects are carefully and painstakingly pursued and the detective uncovers glimpses of a solution when there seemed to be only dead ends. The book is so engaging and enjoyable that one can almost forgive the author breaking several major conventions of detective fiction:
An enjoyable and engaging read but a very disappointing and unsatisfactory denouement.
THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR
A solicitor in a sleepy English market town contemplates his daily cup of tea and two digestive biscuits. He is wondering whether to go home early—a short walk through the town centre—to where he lives with his aunt. Before he can do so, a pleading phone call from a stranger propels him reluctantly into the centre of a national media sensation.
Marion, a reclusive spinster and her elderly mother, who live out-of-town at a large house called The Franchise, have bafflingly been accused of a crime of which they seem to have not the remotest knowledge and no propensity to commit. The accusation, brought by an innocent-faced and vulnerable-looking teenaged girl is so mysteriously convincing that the police eventually have to take it seriously.
Robert Blair, the solicitor, is certain of the innocence of the two women and feels compelled to act on their behalf, seeking the evidence that will prove the girl’s story wrong. In a very gentle and at first barely detectable undercurrent, he admires and finds himself attracted to Marion. Meanwhile the nation is roused to outrage and locals to vigilante action at what the young girl claims has happened.
With the help of his friendly garage mechanics, a private investigator and eventually a barrister friend, Blair works to build a case that will enable the women to see off their accuser, while the police (who have only a peripheral part in the story) work in the opposite direction.
Will our country solicitor succeed, against the odds, while the national media howl for vengeance against the two women, or will his faith in their innocence prove mistaken? Though the story moves rather sedately along, just like that market town, it is nevertheless gripping.
Josephine Tey writes in a mostly clear and readable way but I imagine some of her language being rather quaint and slightly dated even for the time of publishing (1948) She frequently uses and repeats odd motifs, turns of phrase and forms of expression. She several times, for example, has the game of golf referred to by different people as chasing “a piece of gutta-percha”. Other words and expressions I had to look up included parti pris, horse-coper, brown-betty, picking picking oakum, a truckle bed and bêtise. It makes me wonder what it was that led to this book being thought suitable as an exam text for the Cambridge English Certificate (for non-native speakers) when my wife sat for it some 50 odd years ago.
Josephine Tey seems to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder about Christianity. There are a few religious caricatures. There’s a servant who is always having days off for episodes of religious fervour and getting ‘saved’; there’s a bishop, a caricature of a naïve, social activist, soft-on-criminals Anglican clergyman, who believes that “the underdog is always right”; there’s the solicitor’s aunt, whose contribution, apart from supplying hearty meals, is to go to St Matthew’s and pray for the angel of the Lord to intervene. Solutions, however, do seem to come when she prays!
In an amusing passage, the praying aunt reprimands Robert Blair for not having faith, reminding him that “it says quite distinctly that faith will move mountains”. She mistakenly adds that it takes a “a quite colossal faith to move a mountain … so mountains are practically never moved”. In fact, in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 17 verse 20, Jesus says that it only takes “faith the size of a mustard seed” to move a mountain. (It’s not the quality of the faith but the object in which it is placed that counts.)
When all has been said and done our solicitor sleuth, now somewhat saddened, returns to his sleepy legal practice and contemplates once more his afternoon cup of tea and two digestive biscuits. This time, it is his idea to reach for the telephone … a final twist is in store.
A tightly packed but patient, orderly and well-entertained theatre queue is the scene of a puzzling murder. A man near the front of the queue, when it finally moves forward, simply sinks to the ground, killed by a stab wound inflicted some time before. He has a gun but no means of identification on him—not even any clothing labels—and no-one in the queue seems to know anything about him or to have any connection with him.
Josephine Tey weaves an enthralling story, full of suspense and intrigue, as Inspector Grant unravels the mystery. Inspector Grant is a thoughtful and methodical detective, and we are able to listen in as he turns over theory after theory in his mind. We are able to follow where his thoughts are leading him and why. Despite living on his own in lodgings, Inspector Grant is able, courtesy of a benefactor, to dine regularly at an expensive restaurant where he is a well-known and valued customer.
Grant has an assistant, Williams, and is able to call on others to help with surveillance and following up lines of inquiry. However, Grant works mainly on his own, returning to his station to receive reports from the errands on which he has sent out others. His one personal interest seems to be fishing. This enables him to pursue a suspect to a remote part of Scotland under pretence of doing some fishing—a ruse that he also used in The Singing Sands.
The author has quite an engaging style, with many memorable turns of phrase and striking descriptions. Thus, one witness has “boot-button brown eyes”, another “Struwwelpeter hair” and a third “the rubicund face of the man who drives mail coaches through the snow on Christmas cards”.
She does, however, indulge in a bête noir of mine: using little-known foreign words and expressions without explanation. She merely highlights them in italics, as if to say, “It’s foreign but you’ll understand if you have any sort of an education.” Her frequent biblical and classical references and sometimes over-worked language may also stump many a reader, however well educated.
Thus, within the first (very long) paragraph we have the last trump, Thespis and Terpsichore, separation of the sheep from the goats, the “mere contraction of [a] deltoid muscle” and foolish virgins. Very soon street entertainers are “thrusting limp but importunate headgear into the meagre interstices of the queue” and the customers finally approach the guichet (google it—I had to).
Having said that, the writer holds the reader in suspense throughout, as the various leads and suspects are carefully and painstakingly pursued and the detective uncovers glimpses of a solution when there seemed to be only dead ends. The book is so engaging and enjoyable that one can almost forgive the author breaking several major conventions of detective fiction:
An enjoyable and engaging read but a very disappointing and unsatisfactory denouement.
THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR
A solicitor in a sleepy English market town contemplates his daily cup of tea and two digestive biscuits. He is wondering whether to go home early—a short walk through the town centre—to where he lives with his aunt. Before he can do so, a pleading phone call from a stranger propels him reluctantly into the centre of a national media sensation.
Marion, a reclusive spinster and her elderly mother, who live out-of-town at a large house called The Franchise, have bafflingly been accused of a crime of which they seem to have not the remotest knowledge and no propensity to commit. The accusation, brought by an innocent-faced and vulnerable-looking teenaged girl is so mysteriously convincing that the police eventually have to take it seriously.
Robert Blair, the solicitor, is certain of the innocence of the two women and feels compelled to act on their behalf, seeking the evidence that will prove the girl’s story wrong. In a very gentle and at first barely detectable undercurrent, he admires and finds himself attracted to Marion. Meanwhile the nation is roused to outrage and locals to vigilante action at what the young girl claims has happened.
With the help of his friendly garage mechanics, a private investigator and eventually a barrister friend, Blair works to build a case that will enable the women to see off their accuser, while the police (who have only a peripheral part in the story) work in the opposite direction.
Will our country solicitor succeed, against the odds, while the national media howl for vengeance against the two women, or will his faith in their innocence prove mistaken? Though the story moves rather sedately along, just like that market town, it is nevertheless gripping.
Josephine Tey writes in a mostly clear and readable way but I imagine some of her language being rather quaint and slightly dated even for the time of publishing (1948) She frequently uses and repeats odd motifs, turns of phrase and forms of expression. She several times, for example, has the game of golf referred to by different people as chasing “a piece of gutta-percha”. Other words and expressions I had to look up included parti pris, horse-coper, brown-betty, picking picking oakum, a truckle bed and bêtise. It makes me wonder what it was that led to this book being thought suitable as an exam text for the Cambridge English Certificate (for non-native speakers) when my wife sat for it some 50 odd years ago.
Josephine Tey seems to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder about Christianity. There are a few religious caricatures. There’s a servant who is always having days off for episodes of religious fervour and getting ‘saved’; there’s a bishop, a caricature of a naïve, social activist, soft-on-criminals Anglican clergyman, who believes that “the underdog is always right”; there’s the solicitor’s aunt, whose contribution, apart from supplying hearty meals, is to go to St Matthew’s and pray for the angel of the Lord to intervene. Solutions, however, do seem to come when she prays!
In an amusing passage, the praying aunt reprimands Robert Blair for not having faith, reminding him that “it says quite distinctly that faith will move mountains”. She mistakenly adds that it takes a “a quite colossal faith to move a mountain … so mountains are practically never moved”. In fact, in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 17 verse 20, Jesus says that it only takes “faith the size of a mustard seed” to move a mountain. (It’s not the quality of the faith but the object in which it is placed that counts.)
When all has been said and done our solicitor sleuth, now somewhat saddened, returns to his sleepy legal practice and contemplates once more his afternoon cup of tea and two digestive biscuits. This time, it is his idea to reach for the telephone … a final twist is in store.
February 10, 2023
I've reviewed all but two of Teys novels collected here, as individual titles. Of the two Kif was dismayingly unreadable but The Privateer was thrilling in very Daphne Du Maurier style. It outlines the career of Harry Morgan who becomes an exceptional pirate. Full of well thought battles and daring exploits, my only real criticism is that the battles become endless. It just felt as though there were too many of them. But a terrific read.
November 30, 2024
I was just introduced to Josephine Tey and I think she's a magnificent mystery writer! The plots were complex and the characters interesting. Plus I loved the English setting and details. Just delightful!
March 6, 2024
Excellent reads: I took time to read something else between all these books.
I do love a good Tey!
I do love a good Tey!
May 9, 2024
Josephine Tey is perhaps using this novel to prove how good she is as a historian. She uses this novel as a shell to demonstrate that current histories that denigrate King Richard III as the most Wicked Uncle of history are very wrong. As the Wars of the Roses peter out, Richard, had himself coronated and is said to have killed the last two Plantagenet children (the Princes) who might have had a chance to unseat him. This book uses the ploy of a Scotland Yard detective, Alan Grant, bed ridden, hospitalized and bored to tears. Grant decides to search as much history as he can, to determine whether Richard III is guilty and deserves his reputation.
He begins by asking friends and acquaintances for books covering that era. A few books arrive but they all agree that Richard was evil, or they do not cover the killing in sufficient detail. An idol theatre researcher stumbles into the hospital room on a tip from Grant’s wife. Another ploy is used as the researcher is an American who, of course, knows nothing about this short period in British history. Carradine is keen to help and is recruited as Grant’s researcher.
Grant knows the high level of who is who but has an incomplete knowledge of who did what. He suggests some authors to explore and numerous characters to research. Grant teaches and guides while Carradine researches. They gather historical tidbits bit by bit. While they learn, they do not have enough information to decide if Richard was guilty. A number of people wander into and out of the hospital room to provide a light touch to both the history quandary and Grant’s recovery.
As the research progresses, the two discover that Richard was well liked by his contemporaries before he became King and prior to his death. No deaths at his hand were recorded. No Plantagenets or their allies were killed, jailed, or had their wealth attainted. (An obscure British word that recognizes people who aid the King are given their estates but can also have them removed at the King’s displeasure.) The people liked Richard who did not behave like somebody who felt threatened by friends or family of a prior reign.
Richard III was killed, and the reign usurped by Henry VII who was the first Tudor to reign. Richard was no longer mentioned except by one historian, allied to Henry, who condemned Richard heavily and professed that he had killed the princes. All subsequent historians ultimately referred to this one historian as their reference. As Grant heals and becomes mobile, he and Carradine decide there is no evidence that Richard killed the princes.
Although the evidence is strong, I expect the battle of the historians will continue. An interesting book for those who like to right a wrong especially to remove tarnish from an apt ruler. This book probably allowed Tey to get her story out to many more people than any history could. The story is era independent but was written in 1951. Four stars
He begins by asking friends and acquaintances for books covering that era. A few books arrive but they all agree that Richard was evil, or they do not cover the killing in sufficient detail. An idol theatre researcher stumbles into the hospital room on a tip from Grant’s wife. Another ploy is used as the researcher is an American who, of course, knows nothing about this short period in British history. Carradine is keen to help and is recruited as Grant’s researcher.
Grant knows the high level of who is who but has an incomplete knowledge of who did what. He suggests some authors to explore and numerous characters to research. Grant teaches and guides while Carradine researches. They gather historical tidbits bit by bit. While they learn, they do not have enough information to decide if Richard was guilty. A number of people wander into and out of the hospital room to provide a light touch to both the history quandary and Grant’s recovery.
As the research progresses, the two discover that Richard was well liked by his contemporaries before he became King and prior to his death. No deaths at his hand were recorded. No Plantagenets or their allies were killed, jailed, or had their wealth attainted. (An obscure British word that recognizes people who aid the King are given their estates but can also have them removed at the King’s displeasure.) The people liked Richard who did not behave like somebody who felt threatened by friends or family of a prior reign.
Richard III was killed, and the reign usurped by Henry VII who was the first Tudor to reign. Richard was no longer mentioned except by one historian, allied to Henry, who condemned Richard heavily and professed that he had killed the princes. All subsequent historians ultimately referred to this one historian as their reference. As Grant heals and becomes mobile, he and Carradine decide there is no evidence that Richard killed the princes.
Although the evidence is strong, I expect the battle of the historians will continue. An interesting book for those who like to right a wrong especially to remove tarnish from an apt ruler. This book probably allowed Tey to get her story out to many more people than any history could. The story is era independent but was written in 1951. Four stars
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April 2, 2024not a review - but - some info I ran across in reference to the book and subject:
100 YEARS OF THE RICHARD III SOCIETY
In 1951 a novel, The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey was published. It told the story of a detective investigating the controversies surrounding Richard III. The novel's positive view of the King has inspired many to become Ricardians, including in 1952 Isolde Wigram. It motivated her to find out more about him and this lead her to the Fellowship of the White Boar.
By this time the Fellowship, whilst still existing, was not very active. Isolde made contact with Saxon Barton in 1953, and worked with him to revive the Fellowship. The cause was given a boost in 1955 with the publication of Paul Murray Kendall's revisionist biography of Richard III, and the publicity generated by Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's play.
The Fellowship was relaunched in January 1956, with Isolde as secretary and Saxon as President.
100 YEARS OF THE RICHARD III SOCIETY
In 1951 a novel, The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey was published. It told the story of a detective investigating the controversies surrounding Richard III. The novel's positive view of the King has inspired many to become Ricardians, including in 1952 Isolde Wigram. It motivated her to find out more about him and this lead her to the Fellowship of the White Boar.
By this time the Fellowship, whilst still existing, was not very active. Isolde made contact with Saxon Barton in 1953, and worked with him to revive the Fellowship. The cause was given a boost in 1955 with the publication of Paul Murray Kendall's revisionist biography of Richard III, and the publicity generated by Laurence Olivier's film version of Shakespeare's play.
The Fellowship was relaunched in January 1956, with Isolde as secretary and Saxon as President.
August 11, 2023
Listening to this as an audio book after a book club member nominated The Daughter of Time as her book choice. I love the old fashioned language and phrasing of the books and find it very pleasing to listen to. Unfortunately The Daughter of Time was the least interesting to me and its historical theme regarding Richard III was completely out of kilter with the rest of the stories. The others though are all good old fashioned crimes to be solved in real time by the elegant and clever Inspector Grant.
June 28, 2025
A wonderful collection.. It includes all six of the novels featuring Inspector Alan Grant plus some stand-alones...all good. One novel--Miss Pym Disposes--includes a bit of "presaging" a future, more extraordinary novel; one is delightful and funny (To Love and Be Wise); one sad (The Singing Sands); and two are absolutely brilliant: The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar. All with developed characters and all well-written with no grammatical errors.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews