Frances Brody

Frances McNeil, also writing as Frances Brody, is an English novelist and playwright, and has written extensively for radio.^[1]

Early life[]

McNeil was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she now lives. She studied at Ruskin College, Oxford and has a degree in English literature and History from University of York.^[2]

Writing[]

As Frances Brody she has written a series of 1920s crime novels featuring Kate Shackleton.^[3][4][5] The sixth in the series, An Avid Reader, is set in the Leeds Library, the oldest surviving subscription library of its type in the UK. After nine books in the series Brody wrote a short story prequel, Kate Shackleton's First Case, in which the story begins in a Harrogate teashop.^[6] The twelfth book in the series (excluding "first case") was Death and the Brewery Queen, published in 2020.

In 2021 Brody published A Murder Inside, the first in the Brackerly Prison Mysteries series set in a 1960s women's prison in Yorkshire.^[7][8]

She wrote three novels under her own name, which were republished in 2016 under the name Frances Brody. Sisters on Bread Street is partly based on the story of her mother, who lived on Bread Street in Leeds as a child; it was published in a limited edition just after her mother's hundredth birthday, published in an expanded edition as Somewhere Behind the Morning, and republished in 2016 under its original title. Sixpence in her Shoe relates to the Leeds Children's Holiday Camp Association based at Silverdale, Lancashire, about which she has also written a factual history, Now I am a Swimmer (the title being a quote from a child's letter home). Sisters of Fortune is the tale of two girls of different financial backgrounds growing up in Leeds, and was republished as Halfpenny Dreams.^[9]

Her plays include Tressell, about Robert Tressell, author of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists.^[10]

An archive of her literary papers is held by the University of Leeds.^[11]

Selected publications[]

Writing as Frances McNeil[]

• Sisters on Bread Street (Limited edition,^[9] 2003, Pavan Press, ISBN 9780952554714; published as Somewhere Behind the Morning 2006, Orion Books, ISBN 978-1407223971; republished January 2016 as Sisters on Bread Street, a Frances Brody book, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-1070-8)
• Sixpence in her Shoe (2007, Orion Books, ISBN 978-0752881645; republished April 2016 as a Frances Brody book, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-1071-5)
• Sisters of Fortune (2007, Severn House, ISBN 978-0727865847; republished July 2016 as Halfpenny Dreams, a Frances Brody book, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-1073-9)
• Now I am a Swimmer (2004, Pavan Press, ISBN 978-0952554721) (Non-fiction account of the Leeds Children's Holiday Camp Association)

Writing as Frances Brody – the Kate Shackleton books[]

• Dying in the Wool (2009, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-7499-4187-1)
• A Medal for Murder (2010, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-7499-4192-5)
• Murder in the Afternoon (2011, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-7499-5482-6)
• A Woman Unknown (2012, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-7499-5492-5)
• Murder on a Summer's Day (2013, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-0058-7)
• Death of an Avid Reader (2014, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-0057-0)
• A Death in the Dales (2015, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-0656-5)
• Death at the Seaside (2016, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0349406589)
• Death in the Stars (2017, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0349414317)
• Kate Shackleton's First Case (2018, ebook, Little, Brown, ISBN 9780349421155)
• A Snapshot of Murder (2018, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-1432-4) - includes the short story Kate Shackleton's First Case
• The Body on the Train (2019, Piatkus, ISBN 9780349423074)
• Death and the Brewery Queen (2020, Piatkus, ISBN 978-0-3494-2308-1), published in United States as Murder is in the Air (2020, Crooked Lane, ISBN 978-0-3494-2308-1)

Writing as Frances Brody – the Brackerley Prison Mysteries[]

• A Murder Inside (29 October 2021, Piatkus, ISBN 9780349423111)^[8]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website As Frances McNeil
• Official website As Frances Brody

Archives at
Location Leeds University Library  Identifiers MS 2043  Source Frances Brody Archive
How to use archival material