Jennifer Morag Henderson

Penguin have just reissued three of Josephine Tey’s crime novels in new paperback editions, with striking new cover design.

I love how diverse the covers for Josephine Tey’s books are in their different editions.

I originally read the small A format Penguin versions of her books, which belonged to my mum – the person who introduced me to Tey’s work, and who my biography of Josephine Tey is dedicated to.

I’ve picked up a few of these editions for myself second hand over the years – most copies of “The Daughter of Time” feature the portrait of Richard III on the front, so it’s interesting to see the new edition goes with something different.

I also own a special copy of “The Daughter of Time” in Japanese – this was given to me by a Japanese crime writer when I gave a talk about Tey at the British Library in London – he explained how much of an influence Tey had been, not just on his own writing but on Japanese crime fiction in general. I find it amazing to think how far her work has travelled from Inverness.

And here is a nice 1930s French hardback of “Le Monogramme de Perles” – can you guess which title this is in English? (answer is in my biography)

Another gift from a reader of my biography “Josephine Tey: A Life” is the useful “A Collector’s Illustrated Bibliography of the First Editions of Josephine Tey”. This actually not only shows the original hardbacks and dustjackets, but also a round up of UK reprints and paperback editions over the years.

And I enjoy the second-hand US paperback editions of Tey’s crime novels, often in very small pocketbook format with sprayed edges and eye-catching covers. I continue to look out for the 1971 edition of “The Franchise Affair” which shows a decapitated Debbie Harry on top of a box of chocolates:

I’ve blogged before about the different covers on Tey’s books – you can read that entry here: Romek Marber and Josephine Tey

I’ll be speaking about Josephine Tey and Scottish crime writing at the John O Groats book festival on Sunday 30th October – more details to follow soon. A reminder too that I will be speaking about my new book, “Daughters of the North”, at the Northern Stories Festival on 7th and 8th October. I will also be speaking about “Daughters of the North” at the John O Groats book festival on 29th October.