In Nurse Matilda and its sequels Christianna Brand gives her version of a type of governess that would have been familiar in Victorian and Edwardian times, dressed in 'rusty black', stern in manner and almost witch-like yet beneath a harsh exterior one hopes for a matronly individual with children's best interests at heart. With this unpreposessing description we are introduced to a character who had figured in stories told over generations in the author's family. She was very ugly - the ugliest person you ever saw in your life! Her Inspector Cockrill short stories and a previously unpublished Cockrill stage play were collected as The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from inspector Cockrill's Casebook, edited by Tony Medawar (2002).Īnd as they spoke - lo and behold! - there was a knock at the door, and there stood a small, stout figure dressed in rusty black and she said, 'Good evening, Mr and Mrs Brown, I am Nurse Matilda.' She is the author of the children's series Nurse Matilda, which Emma Thompson adapted to film as Nanny McPhee (2005). 1969) and 'Twist for Twist' (EQMM, May 1967) and for a nonfiction work about a Scottish murder case, Heaven Knows Who (1960).

She was nominated three times for Edgar Awards: for the short stories 'Poison in the Cup' (EQMM, Feb. She dropped the series in the late 1950s and concentrated on various genres as well as short stories. The whodunit, set in a World War 2 hospital, was adapted for film by Eagle-Lion Films in 1946, starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector. Green for Danger is Brand’s most famous novel. The character would go on to appear in seven of her novels.

In 1941, one of her best-loved characters, Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police, made his debut in the book Heads You Lose. Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was written while Brand was working as a salesgirl. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess. She was born Mary Christianna Milne in 1907 in Malaya and spent her early years in India.

Brand also wrote under the pseudonyms Mary Ann Ashe, Annabel Jones, Mary Roland, and China Thomson. Christianna Brand (DecemMarch 11, 1988) was a crime writer and children's author.

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