Ann Granger R.I.P.

I was very sorry indeed to learn from her sons that Ann Granger died last month. Ann and I had been friendly for more than thirty years. I first met her at a Crime Writers' Association conference, and later saw her regularly at Detection Club events. In fact, the last time we met was a couple of years or so ago when she came to a Detection Club AGM and lunch at Balliol College.

Born Patricia Ann Granger in Portsmouth in 1939, she studied modern languages prior to working in a number of embassies overseas. Whilst engaged in this diplomatic work, she met John Hulme, and they married in 1966. John regularly accompanied Ann to crime writing events and was another popular figure at Detection Club events (which are always enhanced by the presence of pleasant guests invited by the members). Were John - and, indeed, Ann - involved in spying? John enjoyed teasing me about this every now and then, but he was very discreet indeed, so the short answer is that I have no idea. What I do know was that they were good company. 

When I was a young member of the CWA in the 1990s, I faced the challenge of combining work life, writing, and family life. I tried to square the circle by taking my long-suffering family with me to CWA events, and Ann was always very kind to our children - as indeed were the other writers we met.

Ann turned in 1991 from writing historical romances to a life of crime. Say it with Poison (1991) introduced Mitchell and Markby, who appeared in a total of sixteen novels. In the course of a long and prolific career, she wrote three other series and enjoyed particular success in Germany. There's more info about her life and work in a first-rate obituary in the Daily Telegraph here.