Did you know there was a Golden Age writer who produced more novels, short stories and articles than Agatha Christie? In fact, she published *precisely the same* number of mainstream mystery novels  - 66- as the Queen of Crime, but more if you count those she published under two other names. Her name was Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell, and her main series character, is a genuinely astonishing creation. 

Mitchell can justifiably claim the longevity crown; she outlived Christie by seven years – dying in 1983 - with her final novel being published posthumously a year later, some 55 years after the publication of her first, ‘Speedy Death’. These novels bracketing her long and mostly part-time writing career – Mitchell was a history, English and games teacher her entire life – both starred her most famous series character. Like herself, her character boasted four names: Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley; unlike herself, Mrs (later Dame) Bradley was a medical doctor, also qualified and practising as a psychiatrist that gave her a unique insight into motive and character.  

The Mrs Bradley novels are characterised by their understanding of the human psyche; the murderer is always unmasked and the murder explained by getting under the skins and into the heads of those involved. So it is no surprise that her very first novel came onto the scene with a bang, and the kind of impact due to the subject matter that created a bit of a succes de scandale.  

Mitchell also contributed a classic of the sub-genre in her ‘closed community of women’ novel ‘Laurels Are Poison’. As with her fellow member of the Detection Club, Josephine Tey, Mitchell had first hand experience of a women’s training college – teaching for her, physical training for Tey – and used this to fill the novel with realistic elements. 

Mitchell’s life partner, Winifred Blazey, also wrote mystery novels, but these were not wholly successful and she published only 2 alongside 2 non-mystery novels. 

You will either love or hate Mrs Bradley and, therefore, Gladys Mitchell’s work; there is a growing community of mystery readers who feel she has been given a bit of a hard time, mainly because she continued to write in the same way, and to have Mrs Bradley behave the same, at a time when the genre and protagonists were changing beyond recognition. It could be argued that, unlike Christie, whose forays into a more ‘modern’ approach such as her penultimate novel ‘Elephants Can Remember’, with her ageing protagonists Tommy and Tuppence Beresford never feels quite right, keeping Mrs Bradley ageless and changeless remained true to the genres Golden Age best. 

There is a terrific fan site for Gladys Mitchell run by the author Jason Half and it would be silly to attempt to cover the ground that he has, as a true enthusiast and expert. I commend it to you. 

https://www.gladysmitchell.com/  

If you want to start reading Gladys Mitchell, begin at the beginning with ‘Speedy Death’ or head for ‘Laurels Are Poison’. And, if you can get hold of it, the TV series with Diana Rigg as Mrs Bradley is a hoot, if not how she should look at all.