The New Murrey and Blue blog

Ricardians know Josephine Tey’s 1951 novel The Daughter of Time too well by now for me to go into its plot too deeply. Suffice it that this was a landmark publication for the reputation of Richard III, whose name is cleared brilliantly by Tey’s hero, Alan Grant, a Scotland Yard police inspector who is laid up in a hospital bed. Grant is bored rigid until a friend sets him on the trail of whether or not in the 15th century Richard was the original wicked uncle, usurping the throne and then murdering his two little nephews in the Tower of London .

As you can imagine by the original publishing date, the book fits perfectly into the golden era of crimewriters like Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham. But The Daughter of Time is unique in that it was the first book to delve into the possibility of Richard’s innocence. It was a milestone….and it still is. There are new reviews of it every year, of which this one at  https://shorturl.at/Mw3A5 is a 2025 contribution. The reviewer, Sarah Weinman (https://lithub.com/author/sarah-weinman/), is most definitely a Tey fan, and a fan of this title in particular.

Have a read to see what she has to say.

By viscountessw.