Books by Christianna Brand

Nanny Mcphee: The Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda

by Christianna Brand

Mr. and Mrs. Brown were forever having trouble with their numerous and incredibly naughty children . . . until the day Nurse Matilda entered their lives.
First published nearly fifty years ago, Nurse Matilda and its two companion books-Nurse Matilda Goes to Town and Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital-have charmed readers ever since. Now the inspiration for the major motion picture Nanny McPhee, all three beloved books are available once again in a paperback omnibus edition which features the three complete and unabridged books by Christianna Brand, along with Edward Ardizzone's charming black-and-white illustrations. This movie tie-in edition also features an eight-page color photo insert.

Nurse Matilda: The Collected Tales

by Christianna Brand

Mr. and Mrs. Brown were forever having trouble with their numerous and incredibly naughty children . . . until the day Nurse Matilda entered their lives.
First published nearly fifty years ago, Nurse Matilda and its two companion books-Nurse Matilda Goes to Town and Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital-have charmed readers ever since. Now the inspiration for the major motion picture Nanny McPhee, all three beloved books are available once again in a deluxe hardcover edition which features the three complete and unabridged books by Christianna Brand, along with Edward Ardizzone's charming black-and-white illustrations.

Green for Danger

by Christianna Brand

"Hands down one of the best formal detective stories ever written."-- Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review

This Golden Age masterclass of red herrings and tricky twists, first published in 1944, features a tense and claustrophobic investigation with a close-knit cast of suspects.

"You have to reach for the greatest of the Great Names (Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen) to find Christianna Brand's rivals in the subtleties of the trade."

--Anthony Boucher in The New York Times

It is 1942, and struggling up the hill to the new Kent military hospital Heron's Park, postman Joseph Higgins is soon to deliver seven letters of acceptance for roles at the infirmary. He has no idea that the sender of one of the letters will be the cause of his demise in just one year's time.

When Higgins returns to Heron's Park with injuries from a bombing raid in 1943, his inexplicable death by asphyxiation in the operating theatre casts four nurses and three doctors under suspicion, and a second death in quick succession invites the presence of the irascible--yet uncommonly shrewd--Inspector Cockrill to the hospital. As an air raid detains the inspector for the night, the stage is set for a tense and claustrophobic investigation with a close-knit cast of suspects.

London Particular

by Christianna Brand

First published in 1952, London Particular was Christianna Brand's favorite among her own books, and it remains a fast-paced and witty masterpiece of the genre, showing off the author's signature flair for the ruthless twist. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar® Award-winning author Martin Edwards.

"You have to reach for the greatest of the Great Names (Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen) to find Christianna Brand's rivals in the subtleties of the trade."

--Anthony Boucher in the New York Times

Night falls in the capital, and a "London particular" pea-souper fog envelops the city. In Maida Vale, Rose and her family doctor Tedward struggle through the dark after a man has telephoned from Rose's house, claiming to have been attacked. By the time they arrive, the victim, Raoul Vernet, is dead. The news he brought from Switzerland for Rose's mother has died with him.

Arriving to the scene, Inspector Cockrill faces a fiendish case with seven suspects who could have murdered their guest--family members and friends with alibis muddled by the suffocating fog and motives wrapped in mystery. Now, the race is on to find the truth before the killer strikes again.

Tour de Force

by Christianna Brand

First published in 1955, Christianna Brand's classic novel skewers the package holiday experience while unravelling one of the most audacious and devilish mysteries in the history of the genre. This edition includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar® Award-winning author Martin Edwards.

"Written with much ingenuity, gaiety of colour and bright, joyful malice... Christianna Brand's readers are also taken on holiday in Tour de Force."

--Julian Symons in the Times Literary Supplement, 1955

Inspector Cockrill has finally booked a holiday, destined for a Mediterranean tour with a motley crew of fellow vacationers. By the time they have reached the island of San Juan el Pirata off the Italian coast, the tour group is a bubbling pot of rivalries and tension between friends and lovers, threatening to boil over into violence in the scorching summer heat.

As six holidaymakers relax at the beach under Cockrill's watch, the seventh of their number is slain in the hotel. Believing that the murderer must have been one of the beachgoers, Cockrill faces what looks like an impossible puzzle--one that must be solved before the island's own police force delivers the wrong suspect to their doom.

Bodies from the Library: Lost Tales of Mystery and Suspense from the Golden Age of Detection

by Agatha Christie, A. A. Milne, Christianna Brand, Georgette Heyer, Nicholas Blake

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 16 tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922.

At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public's imagination and saw the emergence of some of the world's cleverest and most popular storytellers.

This anthology brings together 16 forgotten tales that have either been published only once before - perhaps in a newspaper or rare magazine - or have never before appeared in print. From a previously unpublished 1917 script featuring Ernest Bramah's blind detective Max Carrados, to early 1950s crime stories written for London's Evening Standard by Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A.A. Milne, it spans five decades of writing by masters of the Golden Age.

Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her 'Grand Tour' of the British Empire.

With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H.C. Bailey, J.J. Connington, John Rhode and Nicholas Blake, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science - when murder was a complex business.