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Lois Austen-Leigh

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Lois Austen-Leigh
Born
Lois Emma Austen-Leigh

(1883-07-10)10 July 1883
Winterbourne, Gloucestershire, England
Died14 February 1968(1968-02-14) (aged 84)
Aldeburgh, England
FatherArthur Austen-Leigh
Family

Lois Emma Austen-Leigh (10 July 1883 – 14 February 1968) was an English writer and war volunteer. She authored four mystery novels in the 1930s.

Biography

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Austen-Leigh was born in Winterbourne, Gloucestershire,[1] where her father Arthur Austen-Leigh was Rector. She was the great-granddaughter of James Austen (Jane Austen's brother) and granddaughter of James Edward Austen-Leigh. She had three sisters and three brothers. The family later moved to Wargrave, Berkshire, and the four girls attended St Swithun's School, Winchester (then Winchester High School for Girls).[2] Austen-Leigh kept diary entries from 1898 to 1906.[3] She became familiar with Cambridge University (the setting of her novel The Incredible Crime) through her uncle Augustus Austen Leigh.[4][5]

During the First World War, Austen-Leigh worked as a gardener for the Reading Red Cross,[6] while her sister Honor volunteered as a nurse and her brothers Arthur (d. 1918) and Lionel joined the Army.[7] After caring for her aunt until her death, the two sisters moved to the newly built Cob House on Saxmundham Road in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.[8] Here, they befriended the likes of composer Benjamin Britten and author M. R. James.[9]

At the desk of her great-great aunt,[10] Austen-Leigh wrote four mystery novels, which would be published by Herbert Jenkins: The Incredible Crime (1931), set at a fictional college of Cambridge and Wellende Old Hall in Suffolk; The Haunted Farm (1932);[11] Rude Justice (1936);[12] and The Gobblecock Mystery (1938).[13] Austen-Leigh was modest about her own writing and abandoned it after the Second World War,[4] during which she and her sister worked in local emergency services.

Following decades out-of-print, The Incredible Crime was re-published under the British Library Crime Classics banner in 2017. The re-print was edited and introduced by Kirsten Saxton.[14] The Incredible Crime has drawn comparisons to Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night (1935) and Mavis Doriel Hay's Death on the Cherwell (1935).[4][9]

Bibliography

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Novels

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  • The Incredible Crime (1931)
  • The Haunted Farm (1932)
  • Rude Justice (1936)
  • The Gobblecock Mystery (1938)

References

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  1. ^ "Lois Austen-Leigh". List of British Crime Writers. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  2. ^ "Jane Austen's Descendants at St Swithun's". St Swithun's OGA Magazine. 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  3. ^ Anderton, Hayley. "The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh". Shiny New Books. Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Hamilton, Aubrey (14 October 2022). "Friday's Forgotten Book: The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen Leigh". Happiness is a Book. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  5. ^ Austen-Leigh, Lois; Saxton, Kirsten T (2017). The Incredible Crime: A Cambridge Mystery. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  6. ^ Cleal, John (5 August 2017). "The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh". Crime Review. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  7. ^ Gurney, Caroline. "Austen-Leigh family". Lives of the First World War. Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  8. ^ "Building 16511". UK Modern House Index. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  9. ^ a b Tearle, Oliver (11 August 2017). "Lois Austen-Leigh's Incredible Crime". Interesting Literature. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  10. ^ Birchall, Diana (2019). "Crime novels from the Golden Age: The Incredible Crime by Lois Austen-Leigh, Introduction by Kirsten T. Saxton" (PDF). Summer Reading Issue. JASNA. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  11. ^ "Books from day to day". Aberdeen Press and Journal. 14 September 1932. Retrieved 26 March 2025.(subscription required)
  12. ^ Rowland, John (5 September 1936). "Books and Persons". Shetland Times. Retrieved 26 March 2025.
  13. ^ "Excitement and adventure". Birmingham Daily Gazette. 21 December 1938. Retrieved 26 March 2025.(subscription required)
  14. ^ Flood, Alison (29 May 2015). "Crime novel by relative of Jane Austen back in print after 80 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
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