Gladys Mitchell's life

With Gladys Mitchell's novels republished I thought it would be nice to find out more about her. Here is a biography of this wonderful author:

Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell was born in Cowley, Oxfordshire, in 1901. She graduated in history from University College London in 1921 and then became a teacher of history, English and games at St Paul’s School in Brentford, later transferring to St Anne’s Senior Girls’ School in Ealing, where she taught until 1939. She began to write novels in 1926, after obtaining an external diploma in European History from University College. She published at least one novel a year, while continuing to teach until her retirement, when she moved to Corfe Mullen, in Dorset. She never married.

Mitchell was a member of the Middlesex Education Association, the British Olympic Association, the Crime Writer’s Association, PEN and the Society of Authors. In 1976, Mitchell received the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger Award. Her hobbies included architecture and writing poetry. She studied the works of Sigmund Freud and her interest in witchcraft was encouraged by her friend, the detective novelist, Helen Simpson.

Her first novel, Speedy Death, was published in 1929 and introduced the popular character Mrs Bradley, who became the heroine of a further sixty-five crime novels. Mitchell also wrote under the pseudonyms of Malcolm Torrie and Stephen Hockaby.