Jack Adrian, writing for The Independent, says, "In classic 'cosy' territory the puzzle is all, and the sleuths, of both sexes, tend either to the genteel and spinsterish (variations of Miss Marple from Agatha Christie, and Miss Maud Silver from Patricia Wentworth), or to be fussbudget busybodies with loud, horsy laughs and pushy manners."
[2] She began writing mysteries after a long illness that interrupted her career, and her first success as a crime writer came in 1968, when she was 49 years old.
[1] Born in 1919 in Cape Town, South Africa, she was the daughter of Fred and Edith Gillams Clarke, both educators.
[2] Fred Clarke, later knighted, taught in Cape Town, then in Montreal, Canada, and finally in Oxford, England.
[3] Clarke was a member of the British Federation of University Women, the Crime Writers Association, and the Society of Authors.