Book description
Anita Armstrong had once been a notable bestseller. But that was before
the war, before her marriage, and before her impulse to write died with
her husband. Now, as elderly widowed Mrs. Grosshouse, living peacefully
and unknown in Devon, Anita begins a new novel, anxiously, hopefully
feeling her way and finding it grow. Her literary agent and former
publisher are politely cautious, but friends are encouraging and she
manages to enlist the services of a girl called Judy to do the typing.
Trouble only starts when Judy and her boyfriend Chris appear to be
taking much more impatient interest in the progress of Anita’s book than
its author is even aware of. Josephine Bell was born Doris Bell
Collier in Manchester, England. Between 1910 and 1916 she studied at
Godolphin School, then trained at Newnham College, Cambridge until 1919.
At the University College Hospital in London she was granted M. R.C. S.
and L. R.C. P. in 1922, and a M. B. B. S. in 1924.
Bell was a prolific author, writing forty-three novels and numerous
uncollected short stories during a forty-five year period.
Many of her short stories appeared in the London Evening Standard
. Using her pen name she wrote numerous detective novels beginning in
1936, and she was well-known for her medical mysteries. Her early books
featured the fictional character Dr. David Wintringham who worked at
Research Hospital in London as a junior assistant physician. She helped
found the Crime Writers' Association in 1953 and served as chair during
1959-60.
