Frances McNeil, also writing as Frances Brody, is an English novelist and playwright, and has written extensively for radio.

Early life

McNeil was born in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, West Yorkshire, where she now lives. She studied at

Ruskin College Ruskin College, originally known as Ruskin Hall, Oxford, is a higher education institution and part of the University of West London, in Oxford, England. It is not a Colleges of the University of Oxford, college of Oxford University. Named ...

, Oxford and has a degree in English literature and History from

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

Writing

As Frances Brody she has written a series of 1920s crime novels featuring Kate Shackleton. The sixth in the series, ''An Avid Reader'', is set in the

Leeds Library The Leeds Library is the oldest surviving subscription library of its type in the UK. It was founded in 1768, following an advertisement placed in the ''Leeds Intelligencer'' earlier that year. The first secretary was Joseph Priestley. In 177 ...

, the oldest surviving

subscription library A subscription library (also membership library or independent library) is a library that is financed by private funds either from membership fees or endowments. Unlike a public library, access is often restricted to members, but access rights ca ...

of its type in the UK. After nine books in the series Brody wrote a short story prequel, ''Kate Shackleton's First Case'', in which the story begins in a Harrogate teashop. The twelfth book in the series (excluding "first case") was ''Death and the Brewery Queen'', published in 2020, and the thirteenth, '' A Mansion for Murder'', in 2022. Each book in the series is set in a specific location in Yorkshire. ''A Woman Unknown'' was shortlisted for the 2016 Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award, the criteria for which include: "the protagonist is a nice young woman whose life is suddenly invaded". In 2021 Brody published ''A Murder Inside'', the first in the ''Brackerly Prison Mysteries'' series set in a 1960s women's prison in Yorkshire. She wrote three novels under her own name, which were republished in 2016 under the name Frances Brody. ''Sisters on Bread Street'' is partly based on the story of her mother, who lived on Bread Street in Leeds as a child; it was published in a limited edition just after her mother's hundredth birthday, published in an expanded edition as ''Somewhere Behind the Morning'', and republished in 2016 under its original title. ''Sixpence in her Shoe'' relates to the Leeds Children's Holiday Camp Association based at Silverdale, Lancashire, about which she has also written a factual history, ''Now I am a Swimmer'' (the title being a quote from a child's letter home). ''Sisters of Fortune'' is the tale of two girls of different financial backgrounds growing up in Leeds, and was republished as ''Halfpenny Dreams''. Her plays include ''Tressell'', about

Robert Tressell Robert Phillipe Noonan (17 April 1870 – 3 February 1911), born Robert Croker, and best known by the pen name Robert Tressell, was an Irish writer best known for his novel '' The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists''. Tressell spent his early adu ...

, author of '' The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists''. An archive of her literary papers is held by the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

Selected publications

Writing as Frances McNeil

*''Sisters on Bread Street'' (Limited edition, 2003, Pavan Press, ; published as ''Somewhere Behind the Morning'' 2006, Orion Books, ; republished January 2016 as ''Sisters on Bread Street'', a Frances Brody book, Piatkus, ) *''Sixpence in her Shoe'' (2007, Orion Books, ; republished April 2016 as a Frances Brody book, Piatkus, ) *''Sisters of Fortune'' (2007, Severn House, ; republished July 2016 as ''Halfpenny Dreams'', a Frances Brody book, Piatkus, ) *''Now I am a Swimmer'' (2004, Pavan Press, ) (Non-fiction account of the Leeds Children's Holiday Camp Association)

Writing as Frances Brody – the Kate Shackleton books

*''Dying in the Wool'' (2009, Piatkus, ) Set in the fictional village of Bridgestead, based on Cottingley *''A Medal for Murder'' (2010, Piatkus, ) Set in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

*''Murder in the Afternoon'' (2011, Piatkus, ) Set in the fictional quarry village of Great Applewick in the

Yorkshire Dales The Yorkshire Dales are a series of valleys, or Dale (landform), dales, in the Pennines, an Highland, upland range in England. They are mostly located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, but extend into C ...

*''A Woman Unknown'' (2012, Piatkus, ) Set in

*''Murder on a Summer's Day'' (2013, Piatkus, ) Set at

Bolton Abbey Bolton Abbey Estate in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, takes its name from a 12th-century Augustinian monastery of canons regular, now known as Bolton Priory. The priory, which was closed in the 1539 Dissolution of the Monasterie ...

*''Death of an Avid Reader'' (2014, Piatkus, ) Set at the

*''A Death in the Dales'' (2015, Piatkus, ) Set in the

around Langcliffe *''Death at the Seaside'' (2016, Piatkus, ) Set in

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

*''Death in the Stars'' (2017, Piatkus, ) Set at Giggleswick School at the time of the Solar eclipse of June 29, 1927 *''Kate Shackleton's First Case'' (2018, ebook, Little, Brown, ) Set in

*''A Snapshot of Murder'' (2018, Piatkus, ) Includes the short story ''Kate Shackleton's First Case''; set at Ponden Hall *''The Body on the Train'' (2019, Piatkus, ) Set in the Rhubarb Triangle featuring the early-morning train to King's Cross *''Death and the Brewery Queen'' (2020, Piatkus, ), published in United States as ''Murder is in the Air'' (2020, Crooked Lane, ) Set in Masham, home to Theakston Brewery and Black Sheep Brewery *''A Mansion for Murder'' (2022, Piatkus, ) Set at Milner Field (now demolished) near

Saltaire Saltaire is a Victorian model village near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Salts Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allo ...

Writing as Frances Brody – the Brackerley Prison Mysteries

*''A Murder Inside'' (2021, Piatkus, ) *''Six Motives for Murder'' (9 May 2024, Piatkus, )

References

External links

* ''As Frances McNeil'' * ''As Frances Brody'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Brody, Frances Year of birth missing (living people) Living people English women novelists English crime fiction writers English dramatists and playwrights English women dramatists and playwrights Women crime fiction writers English novelists Alumni of Ruskin College Alumni of the University of York Writers from Leeds