Her father Redvers, a Marxist traveling poet and revolutionary, did not really care about his daughter, so Cordelia had many adoptive parents, and from six to eight years old she lived in a cottage in Remford with Mrs. Gibson and her children.

Instead of selling the detective agency off, Cordelia decided to keep it open, helped by the young aspiring actor Bevis and the old secretary Mrs. Maudsley.

Whilst she seems to like order and knowledge, and seems as though she remains focused to the task, during many occasions within The Skull Beneath the Skin she becomes somewhat superficial and conscious of her appearance, compared to that of the more privileged of her clients.

In four separate feature-length dramas comprise the ITV's HTV series (also called An Unsuitable Job for a Woman), Cordelia Gray was portrayed by Helen Baxendale.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman starred Judi Bowker as Cordelia, while The Skull Beneath the Skin featured Greta Scacchi in the role.

[citation needed] Her name was also used to create a cover name for one of the series' main characters, Ai Haibara: as stated by professor Hiroshi Agasa in volume 18, the "Hai" (灰) kanji meaning "gray" in her surname is a tribute to Cordelia.