Mavis Doriel Hay (1894–1979), also known as M. Doriel Hay, was a British author of detective fiction and of non-fiction works on handicrafts.

Life

Hay was born in

Potters Bar Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882.Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on 12 or 13 February 1894 and attended St Hilda's College,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

from 1913 to 1916. Throughout her life, she was interested in the industries and handicrafts of rural Britain. In the late 1920s, she collaborated with Helen Elizabeth Fitzrandolph on a series of works, sponsored by the Agricultural Economics Research Institute of Oxford University, surveying the rural industries of England and Wales. Later in life, under her married name, Mavis Fitzrandolph, she published several works on crafts, particularly

quilting Quilting is the process of joining a minimum of three layers of textile, fabric together either through stitching manually using a Sewing needle, needle and yarn, thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting ...

. In the mid-1930s, during the Golden Age of British detective fiction, Hay published three

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

novels, ''Murder Underground'', ''Death on the Cherwell'', and ''The Santa Klaus Murder''. ''Murder Underground'' received a positive review in the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' from

Dorothy Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers ( ; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime novelist, playwright, translator and critic. Born in Oxford, Sayers was brought up in rural East Anglia and educated at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Somervi ...

, who opined that " is detective novel is much more than interesting. The numerous characters are well differentiated, and include one of the most feckless, exasperating and lifelike literary men that ever confused a trail."Quoted in Carol Westron: Writing Blog, "Mavis Doriel Hay", http://carolwestron.blogspot.com/2015/08/mavis-doriel-hay.html (2015). Hay's second novel, ''Death on the Cherwell'', appeared in the same year as Sayers' ''

Gaudy Night ''Gaudy Night'' (1935) is a mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the tenth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, and the third including Harriet Vane. The dons of Harriet Vane's ''alma mater'', the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford (based on Say ...

'' and, like ''Gaudy Night'', was set in a women's college at Oxford. The three novels were reprinted in 2013-14 in the "British Library Crime Classics" series. Hay married Archibald Menzies Fitzrandolph, the brother of her collaborator in the rural industries survey, in 1929. He was killed in a flying accident during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Hay continued to reside in Box,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

until her death on 26 August 1979, at the age of 85.

Selected bibliography

Mysteries

*''Murder Underground'' (1934–35) *''Death on the Cherwell'' (1935) *''The Santa Klaus Murder'' (1936)

Non-fiction

*''Rural Industries of England and Wales'' (with Helen Elizabeth Fitzrandolph) (1929) *''30 Crafts'' (as Mavis Fitzrandolph) (1950) *''Landsman Hay: The Memoirs of Robert Hay, 1789-1847'' (editor) (1953) *''Traditional Quilting: Its Story and Practice'' (as Mavis Fitzrandolph) (1954) *''Quilting'' (as Mavis Fitzrandolph) (1972)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, Mavis Doriel 1894 births 1971 deaths Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford British social historians English agricultural writers English crime fiction writers English women mystery writers English women non-fiction writers English women novelists People from Potters Bar Writers from Hertfordshire Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers