Joyce Porter (28 March 1924 – 9 December 1990) was an English

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

author. She was born in Marple,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. In

Macclesfield Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Ma ...

she attended the High School for Girls, then

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. served in the

Women's Royal Air Force The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was the women's branch of the Royal Air Force. It existed in two separate incarnations: the Women's Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1920 and the Women's Royal Air Force from 1949 to 1994. On 1 February 1949, the ...

from 1949 to 1963. An intensive course in Russian qualified her for intelligence work for the WRAF. She left the service determined to pursue a full-time career in writing, having written three detective novels already. Joyce Porter lived the last years of her life in a thatched cottage in

Longbridge Deverill Longbridge Deverill is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish about south of Warminster in Wiltshire, England. It is on the A350 road, A350 primary route which connects the M4 motorway and west Wiltshire with Poole, Dorset. The ...

, a village in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

. She is interred in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul. Porter created the characters of Eddie Brown, Constance Ethel Morrison-Burke, and Wilfred Dover.

The Dover books

In DCI Wilfred Dover and his assistant Sergeant MacGregor, she created a template later used successfully, especially by Reginald Hill, in straight ' whodunnits', but Porter's novels, while intricately plotted, were always played for laughs. But despite their light-hearted nature, Porter allowed the books to reflect topical themes. Dover is obese, lazy, unhygienic and bordering on corrupt. MacGregor is keen, clean and ferociously ambitious. However, on the rare occasions he is able to put aside plate, pint-glass and cigarettes long enough to concentrate, Dover usually sees the answer first.

The Honourable Constance books

The Honourable Constance Ethel Morrison-Burke is an upper-class spinster who, armed only with pluck, a deep-rooted hatred of men and her family's enormous financial resources, sallies forth to fight crime with the aid of her devoted companion Miss Jones. (In ''The Fine Art of Murder'', editors Ed Gorman et al. describe Morrison-Burke as "the first clearly lesbian detective in fiction.") The 'Hon Con' books were even less like straight 'who-dunnits' than the 'Dovers' because while Dover is an experienced copper who has, it becomes clear, a good brain, the 'Hon Con' is an amateur bungler of below-average intelligence. Therefore, her solving of each case had to be achieved entirely by a happy coincidence.

Publications

Detective Chief Inspector Wilfred Dover *''Dover One'' (1964) *''Dover Two'' (1965) *''Dover Three'' (1965) *''Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All'' (1967) *''Dover Goes to Pott'' (1968) *''Dover Strikes Again'' (1970) *''It's Murder with Dover'' (1973) *''Dover and the Claret Tappers'' (1976) *''Dead Easy for Dover'' (1978) *''Dover Beats the Band'' (1980) *''Dover: The Collected Short Stories'' (1995) Eddie Brown, The World's Most Reluctant Spy *''Sour Cream with Everything ''(1966) *''The Chinks in the Curtain'' (1967) *''Neither a Candle Nor a Pitchfork'' (1969) *''Only with a Bargepole'' (1971) Constance Ethel Morrison Burke *''Rather a Common Sort of Crime'' (1970) (aka ''Constance Ethel Morrison Burke'') *''A Meddler and Her Murder'' (1972) *''The Package Included Murder'' (1975) *''Who the Heck is Sylvia?'' (1977) *''The Cart Before the Crime'' (1979)

Adaptations

A number of the Inspector Dover books have been adapted for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

Paul Mendelson Paul A. Mendelson is an English television, film and radio scriptwriter. Early life and career He studied law at Cambridge University, where he gained a first class honours degree, after attending Newcastle Royal Grammar School, Glasgow High S ...

and star

Kenneth Cranham Kenneth Cranham (born 12 December 1944) is a British film, television, radio and stage actor. His most notable screen roles were in '' Oliver!'' (1968), '' Up Pompeii'' (1971), '' Hellbound: Hellraiser II'' (1988), '' Chocolat'' (1988), '' Layer ...

as Dover. *''Dover Goes to Pott'' *''Dover and the Claret Tappers'' *''Dover Beats the Band'' *''Dover and The Sleeping Beauty'' (16 January 2010) *''Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All'' And a new story by

based on the characters *''Dover and the Smoking Gun'' (1 October 2001)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Joyce English crime fiction writers 1924 births 1990 deaths 20th-century English novelists English women novelists 20th-century English women writers Women crime fiction writers