Three-a-Penny: Radio 4 Book of the Week

About Lucy Malleson

Lucy Beatrice Malleson was born in Upper Norwood a suburb of London on February 15 1899. Her father was a stockbroker and she was educated at St. Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith. During World War I Malleson's father lost his job and although her mother wanted her to train as a teacher Malleson learned secretarial skills so that she could earn an immediate income for the family. From the age of seventeen onwards she wrote verse and short pieces for Punch and various literary weekly publications. During her early years as a secretary she began to produce novels. Her first crime novel was published in 1927 under the pseudonym Anthony Gilbert and she went on to write over 70 novels as well as a number of radio plays for the BBC. She valued her privacy and for many years successfully concealed her identity as the writer of the Gilbert novels. Malleson's novels often evince a liberal - often feminist - social consciousness and great empathy for the down-and-out and socially marginalised. She lived in or around London for most of her life and died in 1973.