The first name in my title is a bit of a give away – the only Tey I’ve heard of, and I guess that most people have heard of is Josephine Tey the novelist and play-write. It’s a very uncommon name and I’ve never come across it anywhere else but it was the name Elizabeth MacKintosh adopted for some of her work; Gordon Daviot was another nom-de-plume and another very unusual surname, and she was known by many of her friends as Gordon. She had another writing name, F. Craigie Howe who wrote a play, Cornelia, in 1946.
I hardly know what name to call her when writing about her; she was a very private person which I guess is demonstrated by the layers of names she used. There were whole areas of her life where she misled people, for example, retiring to Scotland to look after her ‘ailing’ father, who was a keen fisherman, and active almost until his death at the age of eighty-eight. She was intensely private, and there’s a very interesting site, called ‘A very private person‘, which is full of information about her:
She was born in Inverness in 1896, and died there in 1952; she was a very active person – in fact she trained to be a PE teacher and taught in various English and Scottish schools, and she was a very private person – even to her friends. When she was very ill, no-one knew, and for some it was a great shock to read her obituaries when they hadn’t heard she was ailing. She never married and some people have wondered if she was gay; the comment I find which seems a strong possibility is that she was on of those people who don’t need or desire a significant other, and was content with her life and the pleasure of the company of friends.
I guess most people these days think of her as a novelist, but maybe her own greatest ambition lay in the theatre, and certainly her plays and dramas were very popular and well received.
Here is a link to another interesting article:
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/09/josephine-tey-mystery-novelist
I’m intrigued by MacKintosh/Tey/Daviot/Howe but may be the best way to find an insight into this mysterious woman is to read her work!
By the way, my featured image has nothing to do with Elizabeth/Josephine/Gordon, it’s an enigmatic image – I hope!
Lois Elsden 