A Swan-Song Betrayed

Josephine Bell

May 2012 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

Anita Armstrong had once been a notable bestseller. But that was before the war, before her marriage, and before her impulse to write died with her husband. Now, as elderly widowed Mrs. Grosshouse, living peacefully and unknown in Devon, Anita begins a new novel, anxiously, hopefully feeling her way and finding it grow. Her literary agent and former publisher are politely cautious, but friends are encouraging and she manages to enlist the services of a girl called Judy to do the typing. Trouble only starts when Judy and her boyfriend Chris appear to be taking much more impatient interest in the progress of Anita’s book than its author is even aware of.

About the author

Josephine Bell was born Doris Bell Collier in Manchester, England. Between 1910 and 1916 she studied at Godolphin School, then trained at Newnham College, Cambridge until 1919. At the University College Hospital in London she was granted M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in 1922, and a M.B. B.S. in 1924.

Bell was a prolific author, writing forty-three novels and numerous uncollected short stories during a forty-five year period.

Many of her short stories appeared in the London Evening Standard. Using her pen name she wrote numerous detective novels beginning in 1936, and she was well-known for her medical mysteries. Her early books featured the fictional character Dr. David Wintringham who worked at Research Hospital in London as a junior assistant physician. She helped found the Crime Writers' Association in 1953 and served as chair during 1959-60.