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Designs on Life
English crime writer Ferrars proves that she is also an accomplished story writer with stories that have the qualities of the classic short story. 2 cassettes.
- GenresMysteryShort Stories
180 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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About the author
Elizabeth Ferrars
113 books28 followersAka E.X. Ferrars.
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 6, 2014
Just The Dreadful Bell from this collection
TR Give a Corpse a Bad Name (Toby Dyke #1)
TR Remove The Bodies (Toby Dyke #2)
TR Death in Botanist's Bay (Toby Dyke #3)
TR Don't Monkey with Murder (Toby Dyke #4)
TR Neck in a Noose (Toby Dyke #5)
3* The Doubly Dead
3* Murder Moves In
TR The Other Devil's Name (Andrew Basnett #4)
TR Smoke Without Fire (Andrew Basnett #6)
3* Designs on Life - spooky tale
TR Give a Corpse a Bad Name (Toby Dyke #1)
TR Remove The Bodies (Toby Dyke #2)
TR Death in Botanist's Bay (Toby Dyke #3)
TR Don't Monkey with Murder (Toby Dyke #4)
TR Neck in a Noose (Toby Dyke #5)
3* The Doubly Dead
3* Murder Moves In
TR The Other Devil's Name (Andrew Basnett #4)
TR Smoke Without Fire (Andrew Basnett #6)
3* Designs on Life - spooky tale
March 25, 2026
These nine chiller-thrillers from Ferrars in well under 200 pages offer a leaner, meaner glimpse into the work of, for my money, an underappreciated purveyor of the crime/mystery genre. Some favorites:
The collection's opener, the longest by a bit, is "The Dreadful Bell", in which the unspoken feelings between a married couple (the wife injured, arguably partly due to the husband's negligence) are given some sinister import/significance through the landlady's tale of the murderous goings-on from past residents.
In "After Death the Deluge", an unchecked apartment building flood reveals a hidden corpse. Inspector Cust from Ferrars's Toby Dyke series makes an appearance here.
The protagonist of "The Truthful Witness" puts their forehead up to the frosty pane of what they clearly witnessed and causes some serious trouble for one of their parents. This one is particularly compelling for its toasty bedroom/blistering train station juxtaposition.
"Go, Lovely Rose" is another good one for the mileage it gets out of its eight scant pages of a psychopath who finally trips up.
"Drawn Into Error" sees Ferrars dip into her "What time was it really?" bag, for results that are just ok.
"Safety" puts things back on the rails, with a nice domestic jealousy tableau where passions threaten to burn down much more than a child's matchstick architecture.
In "A Very Small Thing", a thing, in this case a stamp, has larger consequences for an escaped convict. One of the lesser pieces here, by my estimation.
A cigarette featured in "Scatter His Ashes" does the work of the stamp in "A Very Small Thing" in terms of the one tiny object that reveals the truth behind the death of a married woman's father. Another just-ok piece.
The closing story, "Undue Influence", probably ties "Go, Lovely Rose" for the so-much-from-so-little award. Here, a couple's invitation to an elderly woman has sinister implications. As with the other story, there are some light Stephen King genetics on display here.
While none of these individual stories necessarily deserve to be in the pantheon of suspense writing, the collection as a whole is a light intriguing diversion from Ferrars's more demanding work.
The collection's opener, the longest by a bit, is "The Dreadful Bell", in which the unspoken feelings between a married couple (the wife injured, arguably partly due to the husband's negligence) are given some sinister import/significance through the landlady's tale of the murderous goings-on from past residents.
In "After Death the Deluge", an unchecked apartment building flood reveals a hidden corpse. Inspector Cust from Ferrars's Toby Dyke series makes an appearance here.
The protagonist of "The Truthful Witness" puts their forehead up to the frosty pane of what they clearly witnessed and causes some serious trouble for one of their parents. This one is particularly compelling for its toasty bedroom/blistering train station juxtaposition.
"Go, Lovely Rose" is another good one for the mileage it gets out of its eight scant pages of a psychopath who finally trips up.
"Drawn Into Error" sees Ferrars dip into her "What time was it really?" bag, for results that are just ok.
"Safety" puts things back on the rails, with a nice domestic jealousy tableau where passions threaten to burn down much more than a child's matchstick architecture.
In "A Very Small Thing", a thing, in this case a stamp, has larger consequences for an escaped convict. One of the lesser pieces here, by my estimation.
A cigarette featured in "Scatter His Ashes" does the work of the stamp in "A Very Small Thing" in terms of the one tiny object that reveals the truth behind the death of a married woman's father. Another just-ok piece.
The closing story, "Undue Influence", probably ties "Go, Lovely Rose" for the so-much-from-so-little award. Here, a couple's invitation to an elderly woman has sinister implications. As with the other story, there are some light Stephen King genetics on display here.
While none of these individual stories necessarily deserve to be in the pantheon of suspense writing, the collection as a whole is a light intriguing diversion from Ferrars's more demanding work.
March 11, 2022
Engaging short stories about ordinary people; right up my street! I’ve still two to go, but I’ve been keen enough to read one a day. If you like 1940/50’s murder stories, these are really good.
June 7, 2023
The dreadful bell --3
After death the deluge --3
The truthful witness --4
Go, lovely Rose (aka The rose murders)--2
Drawn into error --3
Safety --2
A very small thing --2
Scatter his ashes --3
Undue influence--3
After death the deluge --3
The truthful witness --4
Go, lovely Rose (aka The rose murders)--2
Drawn into error --3
Safety --2
A very small thing --2
Scatter his ashes --3
Undue influence--3
July 18, 2016
The last story was my favorite and gave me a good chuckle.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews