Edith Pargeter

Author profile

born

in Horsehay, Shropshire, The United Kingdom

September 29, 1913

died

October 14, 1995

gender

female

About this author

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aka Peter Benedict, Jolyon Carr, Ellis Peters (later editions of her work are sometimes published under this pseudonym), and John Redfern

West Midlands Literary Heritage website biography

Novelist. Born September 1913 at Horsehay, Shropshire. Her father was a clerk at a local ironworks. Edith attended Dawley Church of England School and the Coalbrookdale High School for Girls. Through her mother, she grew to love the history and countryside of Shropshire, her home for all of her life.

Before World War II she worked as a chemist's assistant at Dawley. During this time she started writing seriously for publication while gathering useful information on medicines that she would draw upon later when tackling crime stories. Her first published nove...more aka Peter Benedict, Jolyon Carr, Ellis Peters (later editions of her work are sometimes published under this pseudonym), and John Redfern

West Midlands Literary Heritage website biography

Novelist. Born September 1913 at Horsehay, Shropshire. Her father was a clerk at a local ironworks. Edith attended Dawley Church of England School and the Coalbrookdale High School for Girls. Through her mother, she grew to love the history and countryside of Shropshire, her home for all of her life.

Before World War II she worked as a chemist's assistant at Dawley. During this time she started writing seriously for publication while gathering useful information on medicines that she would draw upon later when tackling crime stories. Her first published novel was Hortensius, friend of Nero (1936), a rather dry tale of martyrdom that was not a great success but she persevered and The city lies foursquare (1939) was much more warmly received.

During the war she worked in an administrative role with the Women's Royal Navy Service in Liverpool, a relatively brief period away from Shropshire, and for her devotion to duty she received the British Empire Medal. Many more novels appeared at this time, including Ordinary people (1941) and She goes to war (1942), the latter based on her own wartime experiences. The eighth champion of Christendom appeared in 1945 and from now on she was able to devote all her time to writing. She was particularly proud of her Heaven tree trilogy, which appeared between 1961 and 1963, which had as a backdrop the English Welsh borderlands in the twelfth century.

It was not until 1951 that she tackled a mystery story with Fallen into the pit, the first appearance of Sergeant George Felse as the investigating police officer. Her other great character, and the one for which the author will continue to be known the world over, Brother Cadfael, was to follow many years later. The first appearance of this monk at Shrewsbury Abbey was in A morbid taste for bones (1977) and he mixed his herbs and unravelled mysteries in this atmospheric setting for a further nineteen novels. This kept the author very busy for the remaining 18 years of her life, to the virtual exclusion of all other work.

The name "Ellis Peters" was adopted by Edith Pargeter to clearly mark a division between her mystery stories and her other work. Her brother was Ellis and Petra was a friend from Czechoslovakia. A frequent visitor to the country, Edith Pargeter had begun her association and deep interest in their culture after meeting Czechoslovakian soldiers during the war. This was to lead to her learning the language translating several books into English.

She won awards for her writing from both the British Crime Writers Association and the Mystery Writers of America. She was also awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire), an honorary Masters Degree from Birmingham University and the Gold Medal of the Czechoslovak Society for Foreign Relations. There is a memorial to her in Shrewsbury Abbey.

After her death in October 1995, The Times published a full obituary that declared that here was "a deeply sensitive and perceptive woman....an intensely private and modest person " whose writing was "direct, even a little stilted, matching a self-contained personality".(less)

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Edith Pargeter's Books

Average rating: 4.07 · 3,374 ratings · 251 reviews · 34 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet: Comprising Sunrise in the West, The Dragon at Noonday, The Hounds of Sunset, Afterglow and Nightfall 4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 652 ratings — published 1990 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Heaven Tree Trilogy 4.46 of 5 stars 4.46 avg rating — 360 ratings — published 1960 — 4 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury 3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 375 ratings — published 1972 — 9 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Heaven Tree (Heaven Tree, #1) 4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 avg rating — 153 ratings — published 1960 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Green Branch (Heaven Tree, #2) 4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 111 ratings — published 1962 — 15 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Scarlet Seed (Heaven Tree, #3) 4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1963 — 12 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Marriage of Meggotta 3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 1979 — 5 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sunrise in the West (Brothers of Gwynedd, #1) 3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 avg rating — 67 ratings — published 1987 — 8 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dragon at Noonday (Brothers of Gwynedd, #2) 4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 avg rating — 38 ratings — published 1976 — 6 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hounds of Sunset (Brothers of Gwynedd, #3) 4.15 of 5 stars 4.15 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 1976 — 2 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Edith Pargeter…

Series by Edith Pargeter

Heaven Tree (3 books)
by Edith Pargeter
4.169491525423729 of 5 stars 4.17 avg rating — 354 ratings

Brothers of Gwynedd (4 books)
by Edith Pargeter
3.9822485207100593 of 5 stars 3.98 avg rating — 169 ratings

Quotes by Edith Pargeter

“Well, do as you think best. That's every man's right and duty. But for me, I pledge you now I will not surrender one grain of my rights. What I took, I took and by God, I'll keep it, too. Take her home tomorrow, Archie, and never look back to watch what I do, for you know it before. I would not give him one knigh who had confided himself to me and none other, much less you. Only over my dead body," said Hotspur hardily, eye to eye with the friend he had made under Homildon Hill, "will King Henry ever claim you as his prisoner.”
― Edith Pargeter, A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury

tags: defiance, friendship

2 people liked it

“A dead eagle he might have buried, but he had chosen rather to light a fire for a phoenix.”
― Edith Pargeter, A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury

tags: inspirational, war

2 people liked it

“This new approach, it seemed, was not to be made so publicly, not to be exposed to the expedient treason of little devious minds far removed from the battlefields on which honest men met, and contended, and killed one another without malice.”
― Edith Pargeter, A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury

tags: politics, war

1 person liked it

See all Edith Pargeter's quotes »

Polls

Which book would you like to read for our July 15 - September 15 European Royalty group read?

Royal Mistress by Anne Easter Smith

25 votes, 43.1%

Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia P. Gelardi

12 votes, 20.7%

The Lonely Empress: Elizabeth of Austria by Joan Haslip

7 votes, 12.1%

The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet: Comprising Sunrise in the West, The Dragon at Noonday, The Hounds of Sunset, Afterglow and Nightfall by Edith Pargeter

6 votes, 10.3%

Death And The Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart by Chris Skidmore

6 votes, 10.3%

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

2 votes, 3.4%

58 total votes

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