Christianna Brand
| Christianna Brand | |
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Pencil sketch of Christianna Brand
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| Born | Mary Christianna Milne 17 December 1907 British Malaya |
| Died | 11 March 1988 (aged 80) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | England |
| Citizenship | British |
| Genre | Children's literature Mystery |
| Spouse | Roland Lewis |
Christianna Brand (17 December 1907 – 11 March 1988) was a British crime writer and children's author, born in British Malaya.
Christianna Brand was born Mary Christianna Milne (1907) in Malaya and grew up in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess. Brand also wrote under the pseudonyms Mary Ann Ashe, Annabel Jones, Mary Roland, and China Thomson. Christianna Brand served as Chair of the Crime Writers' Association from 1972-1973.
Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was written while Brand was working as a salesgirl, the idea stemming from her fantasies about doing away with an annoying co-worker. In 1941, one of her best-loved characters, Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police, made his debut in the book Heads You Lose. The character would go on to appear in seven of her novels. Green for Danger is Brand’s most famous novel. The whodunit, set in a World War II hospital, was adapted for film by Eagle-Lion Films in 1946, starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector. She dropped the series in the late 1950s and concentrated on various genres as well as short stories. She was nominated three times for Edgar Awards: for the short stories "Poison in the Cup" (EQMM, Feb. 1969) and "Twist for Twist" (EQMM, May 1967) and for a nonfiction work about a Scottish murder case, Heaven Knows Who (1960). She is the author of the children's series Nurse Matilda, which Emma Thompson adapted to film as Nanny McPhee (2005).
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