Edith Pargeter

Better known as author Ellis Peters, she was very proud of her local connections. She was born in Horsehay in 1913 but, after the death of her mother in 1956, she bought a house in Park Lane, Madeley and lived there with her brother until his death in 1984. Neither of them ever married and, a few years later, she moved to a modern bungalow a short distance away.

Educated at Dawley Church of England School and the old Coalbrookdale High School, she was already writing poetry at the age of seven and contributed regularly to the school magazine as a teenager. She worked briefly as a temporary clerk in the Labour Exchange before spending seven years working in a chemist's shop in Dawley. She wrote avidly in her spare time and had her first short story published in a national magazine in 1936 - the same year as her first novel Hortensius, Friend of Nero came out.

In the post-war years she became very involved in Czechoslovakian affairs after attending an international summer school near Prague in 1947. She taught herself Czech and she was awarded a medal for her services to Czech literature. She retained a life-long attachment to the country and the people.

Her first Brother Cadfael novel A Morbid Taste for Bones did not appear until 1977 after she was inspired by the story of St. Winifred's bones being transported to Shrewsbury Abbey. Her stories reached a much wider audience when they were televised during the 1990s with Derek Jacobi in the role of Brother Cadfael.

Altogether she wrote more than 90 books and used several pseudonyms. Her most famous pseudonym Ellis Peters was derived from her brother's middle name Ellis (itself their grandmother's maiden name) and a variation on Petra the name of the daughter of a Czech friend.

She died in 1995.

Reproduced by kind permission of Shelagh Lewis - Living History Project Manager

Fact File

Edith Pargeter