Through the Wall

Patricia Wentworth

Born in Mussoorie, India, in 1878, Patricia Wentworth was the daughter of an English general. Educated in England, she returned to India, where she began to write and was first published. She married, but in 1906 was left a widow with four children, and returned again to England where she resumed her writing, this time to earn a living for herself and her family. She married again in 1920 and lived in Surrey until her death in 1961.

Miss Wentworth’s early works were mainly historical fiction, and her first mystery, published in 1923, was The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith. In 1928 she wrote The Case Is Closed and gave birth to her most enduring creation, Miss Maud Silver.

[1] Manufacturer based in Stoke. Important producers of Porcelain and various types of earthenware under several different partnerships. 1793 to present.

[2] aka “She was a phantom of delight”) William Wordsworth, Poems in Two Volumes (1807) (separate text file enclosed)

[3] The Diverting History Of John Gilpin, Showing How He Went Farther Than He Intended, And Came Safe Home Again. By William Cowper, 1782 (project Gutenberg e-text enclosed)

[4] All right, according to Cocker. According to established rules, according to what is correct. Edward Cocker (1631-1677) published an arithmetic which ran through sixty editions. The phrase, “According to Cocker,” was popularised by Murphy in his farce called The Apprentice. – http://www.bartleby.com/81/3797.html