Catherine Aird R.I.P.

I was deeply saddened to learn of the death yesterday, following a severe stroke, of Kinn McIntosh O.B.E., better known to crime readers as the Diamond Dagger winning author Catherine Aird. She was 94, born in the same year that the Detection Club, of which she was a loyal member for more than forty years, was founded. Catherine - I'll use that name in this post - is someone who has been a friend for more than thirty years. I always enjoyed her writing - in fact I read and reviewed Parting Breath on this blog just three weeks ago - but more than that, I had huge admiration and respect for her as a person.

As an author she will be remembered for twenty-six novels, almost all of them featuring her Calleshire cop DI Sloan, as well as a good many short stories. One of those stories, by the way, is due to appear in a forthcoming Detection Club anthology next March. Whenever I approached her with a view to writing a short story, she was always glad - and quick - to oblige. She really enjoyed the short form. Her fiction pays tribute to Golden Age traditions whilst remaining distinctive - and consistently witty.

I first met Catherine through the CWA, which she chaired for a year in 1990-1. She was a charming and supportive companion to her many friends and a leading figure in the Dorothy L. Sayers Society as well as in the Girl Guide movement. She suffered ill-health in her youth, and I think that health problems probably troubled her for the greater portion of her life. But she was uncomplaining and great fun. I have a prized photograph, taken by the Independent newspaper, of several of us, including Val McDermid, Chaz Brenchley, and Catherine, wandering around under Brighton pier during a CWA conference. Another treasured memory is of spending a good deal of time with her during the 2015 CrimeFest at Bristol, when she was a guest of honour. We were on a 'forgotten authors' panel together, and she joined my wife and me and other friends for a very enjoyable evening. So was the Daggers Dinner at which she was awarded the Diamond Dagger. 

I last saw her in person when I visited her at her home in Sturry, near Canterbury, two and a half years ago. By that time her mobility was much diminished, but her good humour and lively intelligence were much in evidence. She very kindly gave me a number of books from her collection, as well as signing several of her books that I'd collected over the years, and writing a few notes about the background to each. During the course of the day neighbours kept popping in to see that she was okay. She was, at that time, working hard on her next novel. It was an extremely pleasant day and quite a real privilege to see her in the home she'd had since the late 1940s. From time to time she'd drop me a line, to pass on information about crime fiction heritage that she thought would be of interest to me. And it always was. I shall miss her a great deal.