Margaret Yorke

Margaret Yorke
Born	Margaret Larminie 30 January 1924 Compton, Surrey
Died	17 November 2012 (aged 88) Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire
Occupation	Writer Crime Writers Association chair (1979-80)
Genre	Crime fiction

Margaret Yorke (30 January 1924 – 17 November 2012) was an English crime fiction writer, real name Margaret Beda Nicholson (née Larminie). She had changed to the Yorke pen name to avoid readers' confusion with a similarly named published family member.

Life and work

Born in Compton, Surrey, she spent her childhood in Dublin, moving to England in 1937. During World War II she worked as a hospital librarian, then at eighteen she joined the WRNS as a driver. She lived in Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire until her death in 2012.

She published her first novel Summer Flight in 1957, and in Dead in the Morning invented an Oxford don sleuth, Patrick Grant, who shared her love of Shakespeare. Her most recent novels are A Case to Answer (2000) and Cause for Concern (2001). Her five Patrick Grant books were reissued in paperback by House of Stratus in 2012.

She was chairman of the Crime Writers Association in 1979-80. She was awarded the 1999 CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger, and the 1982 Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection for The Scent of Fear. Yorke died at the age of 88 on November 17, 2012.

Patrick Grant novels

• Dead in the Morning (1970)
• Silent Witness (1972)
• Grave Matters (1973)
• Mortal Remains (1974)
• Cast for Death (1976)

Other novels

• Summer Flight (1957)
• Pray, Love, Remember (1958)
• Christopher (1959)
• The China Doll (1961)
• Once a Stranger (1962)
• The Birthday (1963)
• Full Circle (1965)
• The Limbo Ladies (1969)
• No Medals for the Major (1974)
• The Small Hours of the Morning (1975)
• The Cost of Silence (1977)
• The Point of Murder (American title The Come-On) (1978)
• Death on Account (1979)
• The Scent of Fear (1980)
• The Hand of Death (1981)
• Devil's Work (1982)
• Find Me a Villain (1983)
• The Smooth Face of Evil (1984)
• Intimate Kill (1985)
• Safely to the Grave (1986)
• Apricot Bed (1986)
• Evidence to Destroy (1987)
• No Fury (1987)
• Speak for the Dead (1988)
• Deceiving Mirror (1988)
• Crime in Question (1989)
• Admit to Murder (1990)
• A Small Deceit (1991)
• Criminal Damage (1992)
• Dangerous to Know (1993)
• Almost the Truth (1994)
• Serious Intent (1995)
• A Question of Belief (1996)
• Act of Violence (1997)
• False Pretenses (1998)
• The Price of Guilt (1999)
• A Case to Answer (2000)
• Cause for Concern (2001)

References

Crime Writers Association

The Gumshoe Site

Obituary - Telegraph

External links

• Margaret Yorke at fantastic fiction
• Margaret Yorke at Bastulli
• Her recent books at Twbooks