Christianna Brand

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Christianna Brand

Christianna Brand (born December 17, 1907 in British Malaysia , † March 11, 1988 ; born Mary Christianna Milne , since her marriage to Mary Christianna Milne Lewis ) was a British writer . She achieved international fame primarily for her crime novels . She also published under the pseudonyms Mary Ann Ashe , Annabel Jones , Mary Roland and China Thomson .

Life

Christianna Brand spent the first years of her life in India , after which she moved to Great Britain and initially worked in various professions, including as a saleswoman , educator , secretary , but also as a model and ballroom dancer . She married the surgeon Roland Lewis. The marriage lasted more than half a century until her death.

Unpleasant professional experiences then gave her the idea to write her first crime novel Death in High Heels (1941):

“I worked in a large fashion salon, where I had a woman as a supervisor, as there are unfortunately in professional life, who did not let the opportunity pass by to torment her employees and drive them to the edge of despair. She particularly haunted me and took me so far that I felt the desire to kill her more and more. When I then left my job and got married, I decided to write all these feelings of revenge from my soul and to ventilate them in a novel in which I gave this person the lead role of the criminal. "

- Christianna Brand

That same year, Inspector Cockrill made his debut in Heads Lose ( Heads You Lose , 1941). The Kent County Police officer, designed by Christianna Brand after her father-in-law, William Lewis, a doctor, turned out to be one of her favorite characters. The author had him appear in a total of seven of her novels, including her internationally best-known work, Anesthesia ( Green for Danger , 1944). This classic Whodunit is about a murder in a military hospital during World War II . Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat created 1946 under the title Warning: Green! ( Green for Danger ) a film adaptation in which Alastair Sim played Inspector Cockrill. This classic crime film was followed by further cinema and television adaptations of her works. In addition to her detective novels, most of which have also been translated into German , Christianna Brand wrote criminal short stories and non-fiction books such as Heaven Knows Who (1960), which dealt with an actual murder case in Scotland . From 1972 to 1973 she chaired the British crime writers 'association , the Crime Writers' Association .

In addition to a number of books in other genres, Christianna Brand had great success in the 1960s with the three-part children's book series about the unconventional and magical Nanny Matilda ( Nurse Matilda ), illustrated by her cousin Edward Ardizzone . Both had heard these stories from the same grandfather as children. Emma Thompson adapted the books decades later for the fantasy film A Magical Nanny ( Nanny McPhee , 2005).

Christianna Brand died on March 11, 1988.

Awards

  • Nominations for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Heaven Knows Who (non-fiction, 1960), Twist for Twist (short story, published in: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1967) and Poison in the Cup (short story, published in: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine , February 1969)
  • 1981 - Swedish Crime Award ( Svenska Deckarakademins pris ) in the "Lifetime Achievement Award - Grand Master" category
  • 1987 - HRF Keating counted Green for Danger on a list compiled by him among the 100 best thrillers
  • 2000 - The Independent Mystery Booksellers Association included Green for Danger in its compilation of the 100 most popular crime novels of the 20th century

Works

Detective novels

Inspector Charlesworth

  • Death in High Heels , 1941
  • The Rose in Darkness , 1979

Inspector Cockrill

  • Heads You Lose , 1941 (German heads to lose , Munich and Wollerau / Switzerland 1968)
  • Green for Danger , 1944 (German anesthesia , Wiesbaden 1951)
  • Suddenly At His Residence , 1947 (German confession without guilt , Munich and Wollerau / Switzerland 1969)
  • Death of Jezebel , 1948 (German: A dead takes revenge , Munich 1977; currently under ISBN 3-442-04696-3 )
  • London Particular , 1952 (German: London in the fog , Munich and Wollerau / Switzerland 1973; ISBN 3-442-25903-7 )
  • Tour de Force , 1955 (German toast to the murderer , Munich and Wollerau / Switzerland 1969)
  • The Three Cornered Halo , 1957

Inspector Chucky

  • Cat and Mouse , 1950 (German Katz and Mouse , Bern 1951; currently under ISBN 3-442-04995-4 )
  • A Ring of Roses , 1977 (as Mary Ann Ashe)

more books

  • The Single Pilgrim , 1946 (as Mary Roland; German Stephanie Thorne , Bern 1947)
  • Welcome to Danger , 1949
  • Starrbelow , 1958 (as China Thompson)
  • Dear Mr. MacDonald , 1959
  • Heaven Knows Who , 1960
  • Blood Brothers , 1965
  • My Ladies' Tears , 1965
  • Twist for Twist , 1967
  • Court of Foxes , 1969
  • Alas, for Her that Met Me! , 1976 (as Mary Ann Ashe)
  • The Honey Harlot , 1978
  • The Brides of Aberdar , 1982

Children's books

  • Nurse Matilda , 1964 (German: Matilda, the strange nanny , Zurich and Freiburg im Breisgau 1966; later under the title Nanny Matilda , Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8270-5017-0 )
  • Nurse Matilda Goes to Town , 1967 (German Nanny Matilda goes to the city , Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-8270-5057-1 or ISBN 3-8270-5057-X )
  • Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital , 1975
  • Nanny Mcphee: Based On the Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda , 2005
  • Nurse Matilda. The Collected Tales , 2005

Stories (anthologies)

  • What Dread Hand , 1968 (German as partial editions under the titles Mörder, Monstren und Makabres , Reinbek bei Hamburg 1971; ISBN 3-499-42229-8 , and Gangster, Geister und Ganoven , Reinbek bei Hamburg 1972; ISBN 3-499- 42246-8 )
  • Brand X , 1974
  • Buffet for Unwelcome Guests , 1983
  • The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from Inspector Cockrill's Casebook , 2002

Film adaptations

In addition, Christianna Brand also worked on the screenplay of The Mark of Cain (1947).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GH: Interview with Christianna Brand. In: Christianna Brand: Anesthesia. Detective novel (Green for Danger). Detective Club, Wiesbaden 1951, on the cover mirror
  2. ↑ HRF Keating's 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books
  3. ↑ Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century (2000) ( Memento of the original dated August 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.topmystery.com
personal data
SURNAME Brand, Christianna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Milne, Mary Christianna (maiden name); Lewis, Mary Christianna Milne (after their marriage); Ashe, Mary Ann (pen name); Jones, Annabel (pseudonym); Roland, Mary (pseudonym); Thomson, China (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH British Malaysia
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1988