Josephine Bell, pseudonym of Doris Bell Collier, (8 December 1897 – 24 April 1987), was an English physician and writer. Bell wrote nineteen novels and forty-five mystery novels in her lifetime, as well as radio plays, short stories, and series for women's magazines.
Life
Bell was born in Manchester, England in 1897 and studied at
Godolphin School
Godolphin School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school for girls in Salisbury, England, which was founded in 1726 and opened in 1784. The school educates girls between the ages of three an ...
between 1910 and 1916. She then trained at
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...
until 1919. At the
University College Hospital
University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College Lo ...
in London she was granted
M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in 1922, and a
M.B. B.S. in 1924.
In 1923, she married Dr. Norman Dyer Ball, and the couple had a son and three daughters. From 1927 until 1935 the couple practiced medicine in
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
and London. When her husband died, Bell moved to
Guildford
Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
. From 1954 through 1962 she was a member of the management committee of St. Luke's Hospital.
Bell began to write detective novels beginning in 1936 under her pen name. Many of her works used a medical background and featured the fictional character Dr. David Wintringham, who worked at Research Hospital in London as a junior assistant physician.
In 1953, Bell helped found the
Crime Writers' Association
The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. ...
and served as chair from 1959 to 1960.
Bibliography
David Wintringham
*''Murder in Hospital'', 1937
*''Death on the Borough Council'', 1937
*''Fall Over Cliff'', 1938
*''Death at Half-Term'', 1939
*''From Natural Causes'', 1939
*''All Is Vanity'', 1940
*''Death at the Medical Board'', 1944
*''Death in Clairvoyance'', 1949
*''The Summer School Mystery'', 1950
*''Bones in the Barrow'', 1953
*''The China Roundabout'', 1956
*''The Seeing Eye'', 1958
Other crime novels
*''The Port of London Murders'', 1938.
*''Trouble at Wrekin Farm'', 1942.
*''Backing Winds'', 1951. Serialised:
Woman
A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl.
Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...
, as 'The Dark Tide' from 21 July to 18 August 1951
*''To Let, Furnished'', 1952.
*''Fires at Fairlawn'', 1954.
*''Death in Retirement'', 1956.
*''Double Doom'', 1957.
*''Easy Prey'', 1959.
*''The House Above the River'', 1959.
*''A Well-Known Face'', 1960.
*''New People at the Hollies'', 1961.
*''Adventure with Crime'', 1962.
*''A Flat Tyre in Fulham'', 1963.
*''The Hunter and the Trapped'', 1963.
*''The Alien'', 1964.
*''The Upfold Witch'', 1964. Serialised: Woman's Realm from 15 August to 26 September 1964
*''No Escape'', 1965.
*''The Catalyst'', 1966.
*''Death on the Reserve'', 1966.
*''Death of a Con Man'', 1968.
*''The Fennister Affair'', 1969.
*''The Wilberforce Legacy'', 1969.
*''A Hydra with Six Heads'', 1970.
*''A Hole in the Ground'', 1971.
*''Death of a Poison-Tongue'', 1972.
*''A Pigeon Among the Cats'', 1974.
*''Victim'', 1975.
*''The Trouble in Hunter Ward'', 1976.
*''Such a Nice Client'', 1977.
*''A Swan-Song Betrayed'', 1978.
*''Wolf! Wolf!'', 1979.
*''A Question of Inheritance'', 1980.
*''The Innocent'', 1983.
Other books
References
External links
Josephine Bell 1897-1987 Crime & Mystery Fiction.
Detective-Fiction.com.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Josephine
1897 births
1987 deaths
English crime fiction writers
20th-century English medical doctors
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
English women mystery writers
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English women writers
Members of the Detection Club
Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction