Most Popular Books by Josephine Tey

"Richard of Bordeaux" is a play by Elizabeth MacKintosh, best known by another of her pen names, Josephine Tey. The play tells the story of Richard II of England in a romantic fashion, emphasizing the relationship between Richard and his first wife, Queen Anne of Bohemia. She wrote the play after seeing actor John Gielgud play Shakespeare''s Richard II at the Old Vic Theatre in London, and submitted it to him for production. The play was a major hit in 1933, playing a significant role in turning its director and leading man John Gielgud into a major star. Audiences found its portrayal of medieval characters speaking like modern people refreshing.

Josephine Tey was a pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh. Josephine was her mother''s first name and Tey the surname of an English Grandmother. As Josephine Tey, she wrote six mystery novels including Scotland Yard''s Inspector Alan Grant. Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of her novels, ''A Shilling for Candles'' (1936) as ''Young and Innocent'' in 1937 and two other of her novels have been made into films, ''The Franchise Affair'' (1948), filmed in 1950, and ''Brat Farrar'' (1949), filmed as ''Paranoiac'' in 1963. In addition a number of her works have been dramatised for radio. Her novel ''The Daughter of Time'' (1951) was voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers'' Association in 1990.

What begins as a ploy to claim an inheritance ends with the impostor''s life hanging in the balance. In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family''s sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick''s mannerism''s, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick''s early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the imposter''s plan and his life. Culminating in a final terrible moment when all is revealed, Brat Farrar is a precarious adventure that grips the reader early and firmly and then holds on until the explosive conclusion. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.