Constance Lindsay Taylor (10 January 1907 – 15 January 2000)
was a British writer, playwright and screenwriter who wrote under the pseudonym Guy Cullingford. Her novels and short stories were written in the style of
Golden Age detective fiction.
Early life and marriage
Born Alice Constance Dowdy on 10 January 1907 in
Dovercourt
Dovercourt is a small seaside town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Harwich, in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. It is older than its smaller but better-known neighbour, the port of Harwich, and appears in th ...
, Essex, she was the only child of Sidney Ernest Dowdy and Anna May Flowers. Her father was a chemist and a keen photographer.
She worked as a children’s librarian at
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
Library before marrying solicitor, Morris Lindsay Taylor, in July 1930.
The couple moved to
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
where Morris Lindsay Taylor held the role of Deputy Town Clerk. Over the next ten years the couple had three children and relocated as Morris Lindsay Taylor took up the position of Town Clerk in
Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns ...
followed by further town clerk roles in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Career
Lindsay Taylor’s first novel, ''Murder with Relish'', was published in 1948 when she was 41 years old. The book was published under her actual name but her publisher advised that she use a male pseudonym for subsequent novels.
All of Lindsay Taylor’s further work was published under the name Guy Cullingford, the surname was the maiden name of her maternal grandmother.
Lindsay Taylor went on to publish a further eleven novels, all of which were murder mysteries. Her most celebrated book, ''Post Mortem'', was published in 1953 and received critical acclaim in both the UK and US.
Her stories were noted for their in-depth characters, everyday settings, humour and wry observations on the British class system.
During the 1950s and 1960s, a number of Lindsay Taylor’s short stories were published in fiction magazines including ''
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine'' and ''
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine''. The short story ''My Unfair Lady'' was published in three
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
anthologies between 1959 and 1986.
In 1958, an adaptation of ''Post Mortem'', entitled ''A Ghost of a Chance'' was broadcast on the
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4.
History
1922–1939: Interwar period
Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...
’s
''Saturday Night Theatr''e. Lindsay Taylor wrote the script and the cast included
Ronald Ward
Ronald Ward (5 April 1901 – 31 March 1978) was a British actor who, alongside his stage work, appeared in more than twenty British films between 1931 and 1956. He was born in Eastbourne in 1901 as Ronald William Ward, and made his screen ...
,
Joan Matheson,
, and
Jeffrey Segal
Jeffrey Segal (1 August 1920 – 5 February 2015) was an English actor and scriptwriter. He made his first screen appearance, as an extra, in the film '' Jew Süss'' (1934). From the early 1960s onwards he appeared in many British TV series, ...
.
During the 1970s, Lindsay Taylor wrote three screenplays for television: ''Sarah'', ''The Boy Dave'' and ''The Winter Ladies''. These were a departure from her usual mystery genre and were centred around coming-of-age themes (''Sarah'' and ''The Boy Dave'') and domestic drama. All were produced by
Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
and broadcast on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
. In 1973, ''Sarah'' was nominated for an
International Emmy Award
The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and S ...
in the fiction category.
Lindsay Taylor’s novels and the short story, ''My Unfair Lady'', were republished by
Orion’s digital imprint, The Murder Room, in 2015.
Lindsay Taylor was a member of the
Detection Club
The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Arthur Morrison, Hugh Walpole, John Rhode, Jessie Rickard, Baroness Emma Orczy, R. Aus ...
which was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery authors including
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
,
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer, philosopher, Christian apologist, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox". Of his writing style, ''Time'' observed: "Wh ...
and
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...
. She died, aged 93, on 15 June 2000, at Marine House Nursing Home,
Rosemarkie
Rosemarkie ( sco, Rossmartnie, from gd, Ros Mhaircnidh meaning "promontory of the horse stream") is a village on the south coast of the Black Isle peninsula in Ross-shire (Ross and Cromarty), northern Scotland.
Geography
Rosemarkie lies a quart ...
, Scotland.
Publications
All published under the pseudonym Guy Cullingford, with the exception of ''Murder with Relish''.
Novels
* ''Murder with Relish'' (1948) (published under the name Constance Lindsay Taylor)
* ''If Wishes Were Hearses'' (1952)
* ''Post Mortem'' (1953)
* ''Conjuror’s Coffin'' (1954)
* ''Framed for Hanging'' (1956)
* ''The Whipping Boys'' (1958)
* ''A Touch of Drama'' (1960)
* ''Third Party Risk'' (1962)
* ''Brink of Disaster'' (1964)
* ''The Stylist'' (1968)
* ''Bread and Butter Miss'' (1979)
* ''Bother at the Barbican'' (1991)
Short stories
* ''Change Partners'' (1958)
* ''My Unfair Lady'' (1958)
* ''Kill and Cure'' (1958)
* ''Mr Mowbray’s Predecessor'' (1961)
* ''The Birthday'' (1964)
* ''Something to Get at Quick'' (1967)
* ''Locals Should Know Best'' (1968)
* ''The Incurable Complaint'' (1969)
Plays and screenplays
* ''A Ghost of a Chance'', broadcast on BBC Home Service, 14 June 1958
* ''Sarah'', broadcast on ITV, 21 January 1973
* ''The Boy Dave'', broadcast on ITV, 30 December 1975
* ''The Winter Ladies'', broadcast on ITV, 15 May 1979
References
External links
Guy Cullingford on IMDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Constance Lindsay
English crime fiction writers
1907 births
2000 deaths
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English women writers
Women crime fiction writers